A new treatment is giving hope to cancer patients, causing unprecedented “strong responses” in cases where the disease had become resistant to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Doctors have described the results of a new clinical trial as “first-of-its-kind” and say a triple-action cancer injection can completely eliminate tumors in some patients.
In the international study (“Immunotherapy injection shrinks tumours in patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer“), which was conducted in 11 countries, the treatment was given to patients whose cancer had spread or recurred and was no longer responding to available treatments.
The injection, called amivantamab, led to tumor shrinkage in more than 1 in 3 patients, with impressive results recorded within a few weeks. In 15 cases, doctors found that the tumors had completely disappeared.
The trial involved 102 patients with head and neck cancer, the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide. Tumors shrank or disappeared completely in 43 patients. Of those, 28 had significant tumor shrinkage, while 15 had their tumors completely eliminated.
The researchers reported that similar results were seen in patients with lung cancer. Amivantamab, developed by Johnson & Johnson, is currently being evaluated in about 60 clinical trials, primarily for lung cancer, but also for cancers of the colon, brain and stomach.
How does the new treatment work
Unlike traditional therapies that sweep broadly (like chemotherapy), amivantamab is a bispecific antibody that uses a multi-pronged precision approach:
- Blocks EGFR: It cuts off a key protein that fuels tumor growth.
- Blocks MET: It shuts down a biological pathway that cancer cells often use to evade standard treatments.
- Recruits the Immune System: It actively flags malignant cells to the body’s immune system so immune cells can attack and finish off the tumor.
How it is given and what side effects it has
Unlike many cancer treatments, amivantamab is given by injection under the skin rather than through an intravenous infusion, making the process quicker and easier for both patients and outpatients.
Most side effects were mild to moderate, and fewer than one in ten patients had to stop treatment.
Progress for difficult cancer cases
The researchers also highlighted that the study focused on head and neck cancers that are not related to the human papillomavirus (HPV). This is particularly important, they said, as head and neck cancers not caused by HPV are usually more difficult to treat, making the progress in this group particularly significant.
Patients who received amivantamab lived an average of 12.5 months after starting treatment, despite suffering from a form of cancer with a very poor prognosis, when standard treatments cease to be effective.
