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Dr. Ferris Discusses Nivolumab in Head and Neck Cancer

Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, discusses nivolumab (Opdivo) in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer.

Robert Ferris, MD, PhD, vice chair for Clinical Operations, associate director for Translational Research, and co-leader of the Cancer Immunology Program at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, discusses nivolumab (Opdivo) in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer.

The updated 2-year findings from the CheckMate-141 trial showed a 32% reduction in the risk of death in patients with metastatic or recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with nivolumab compared to chemotherapy. Additionally, the 2-year overall survival (OS) rate was 16.9% with nivolumab, and the median OS was 7.7 months. The tolerability of nivolumab was superior to chemotherapy as well, providing a better quality of life for these patients, Ferris explains.

Ferris says that there are 2 big questions—who will benefit from nivolumab therapy, and can patients be selected by HPV status? In CheckMate-141, patients who were HPV-positive demonstrated similar benefit to those who were HPV-negative. There was an approximate 40% reduction in the risk of death for all patients treated with nivolumab, Ferris says.

PD-L1 testing has been suggested as another way to choose patients for checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Ferris says that findings from CheckMate-141 suggest that all patients, regardless of PD-L1 status, still benefitted.

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