Novel Immunotherapy Agents in Early-Phase Trials for Head and Neck Cancer

What are the safety, antitumor activity, and biomarkers associated with novel immunotherapy agents in patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated in early-phase clinical trials?In this cohort study of 158 patients, novel immunotherapies were associated with modest antitumor activity (7.7% objective response rate, 16.1% clinical benefit rate), and treatment-related adverse events occurred in 53.8% of patients, with grade 3 or higher events occurring in 14.6%. Bispecific antibodies were associated with improved clinical benefit, whereas , , and alterations were associated with poorer outcomes.These findings suggest that next-generation immunotherapies may offer limited, but variable activity in heavily pretreated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, highlighting the need for biomarker-guided therapeutic strategies.

Corresponding Author: Harold Nathan Tan, MD, MBA, MS, Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Program), The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1400 Holcombe Blvd, Houston, TX 77030 (hntan@mdanderson.org).

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