Axitinib Drug Improves Survival for Incurable Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Few options remain favorable for advanced head and neck cancer patients, although first- and second-line treatments have been exhausted, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal Cancer.// A new phase 2 clinical trial conducted by the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers found the drug axitinib could increase these patients' lives by several months and identified a subset of patients with a particular mutation for whom the drug is likely to work best.

Survival increased from less than six months with the current standard treatments to nearly ten months in the 28 patients enrolled in the trial, the research team reported.

Additionally, 75 percent of patients with alterations in the PI3K signaling pathway involved in cell cycle regulation had a good response to the therapy, versus 17 percent of those without the alterations.

"These are patients with metastatic cancer for whom there are no good options outside of clinical trials," states the study author Paul Swiecicki, M.D. "And it's a very timely study because tyrosine kinase inhibitors like axitinib, which target tumors' blood supply, have shown considerable synergy when combined with immunotherapy."

One of the stumbling blocks for this type of combination therapy has been the significant side effects that occur when the two approaches are used simultaneously, he says. However, the current study revealed that axitinib might actually prime the body in a way that makes subsequent immunotherapy more effective.

Although the clinical trial is small, the study examined what happened to those who received immunotherapy after axitinib and found these patients' cancers responded exceptionally well.

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"This supports the idea that we may be able to combine the two strategies in a new way by giving them sequentially rather than at the same time, which should cut down on the severity of the side effects," Swiecicki says.

Source-Medindia