New ‘fingerprinting’ method offers hope for targeted head and neck cancer treatments

Innovative technology uses a machine-learning-based approach to analyze cancer cells and surrounding tissues at an unprecedented single-cell level

Here in New Zealand, mouth cancer affects over 300 people each year, with cases on the rise. Often, this disease goes undetected until it has already reached an advanced stage, making treatment more challenging and survival rates lower. Early detection can make a difference, and this is where our general practitioners (GPs) and dentists have a vital role to play.

The phase 3 KEYNOTE-689 trial has been evaluating Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as a perioperative treatment for patients newly diagnosed with stage 3 or 4A, resected, locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The drug was given as a neoadjuvant therapy before surgery, then continued after surgery in combination with standard-of-care radiotherapy (with or without cisplatin) as an adjuvant therapy, and then as a maintenance therapy.

Results from a pre-specified interim analysis demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in event-free survival for patients receiving the Keytruda regimen, meeting the study’s primary endpoint.

A statistically significant improvement in major pathological response, a key secondary endpoint, was also shown for patients in the Keytruda arm compared with adjuvant radiotherapy alone, and the safety profile of Merck’s drug was consistent with that observed in previously reported studies.

More than 58,450 new cases of head and neck cancer, which describes a number of different tumours that develop in or around the throat, larynx, nose, sinuses and mouth, are expected to be diagnosed in the US this year.

Keytruda works by increasing the ability of the body’s immune system to help detect and fight tumour cells, and is already approved as a monotherapy and in combination regimens for certain patients with metastatic or unresectable, recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The era of treating every patient with head and neck cancer with the same regimen—a combination of aggressive surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy—is coming to a close. Advances in care in the past decade, most notably in the past few years, have opened the doors to new ways of thinking that are extending survival and improving quality of life for patients.

https://www.euronews.com/health/2024/09/27/scientists-discover-link-between-bacteria-in-the-mouth-and-head-and-neck-cancers

10 Top Tips for Dentists treating Head and Neck Cancer patients.

Please note: In New Zealand, follow-up dental care is provided privately by the patient’s own dentist. Patients may or may not have health insurance to cover these costs.