Key points from article :
A new clinical trial has shown that the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab can double the survival time for people with advanced head and neck cancers—offering the first major breakthrough for this type of cancer in 20 years. The trial, led globally by Washington University Medical School in St Louis and in the UK by Professor Kevin Harrington at the Institute of Cancer Research, involved over 350 patients and was presented at the ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) annual meeting.
Patients were given pembrolizumab both before and after surgery. This approach allows the immune system to first "see" and respond to the tumour, then continue to fight it post-surgery, reducing the chance of recurrence. On average, the treatment extended cancer-free survival from 2.5 to 5 years, and reduced the risk of cancer spreading by 10% after three years.
One patient, Laura Marston, who was diagnosed with advanced tongue cancer at age 39, said the drug gave her her life back after she was told she had only a 30% chance of surviving five years. Six years later, she is cancer-free and back to full-time work.
Researchers hope this success will lead to the immunotherapy being adopted more widely—potentially through the NHS—and believe it could transform outcomes for the 12,800 people diagnosed with head and neck cancers in the UK each year.
