Dr. Cohen on the Goals of the SPEARHEAD-2 Trial in Head and Neck Cancer

Ezra Cohen, MD, FRCPSC, FASCO, chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology, and a medical oncologist at the University of California, San Diego Health, discusses the goals of the phase 2 SPEARHEAD-2 trial (NCT04408898) in head and neck cancer.

The pilot SPEARHEAD-2 trial is currently enrolling patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer, says Cohen. The goal of the study is to identify the potential use of ADP-A2M4 plus pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as a rescue therapy for patients who are unresponsive to PD-1 inhibitors alone. There currently aren’t effective options for this subgroup of patients, Cohen explains.

However, eligible patients must be checkpoint inhibitor naïve, PD-L1 positive, MAGE-A4 expressors, and human leukocyte antigen-A*02 positive, says Cohen. Because that subpopulation of patients with recurrent head and neck cancer is limited, clinical trial accrual could be challenging, concludes Cohen.