Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Year in Review
  • Published:

Head and neck cancer in 2016

A watershed year for improvements in treatment?

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 14, pages 76–78 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

In the past year, clinical trials have provided important information on strategies to decrease treatment-associated toxicities in patients with head and neck cancer. In addition, the FDA approved the first immunotherapeutic agents for patients with recurrent and/or metastatic disease, based on the observation of durable responses to pembrolizumab in a phase Ib trial, and demonstration of improved survival and quality of life with the use of nivolumab versus chemotherapy in a phase III trial.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Mehanna, H. et al. PET–CT surveillance versus neck dissection in advanced head and neck cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 374, 1444–1454 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Bonner, J. A. et al. Radiotherapy plus cetuximab for squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. N. Engl. J. Med. 354, 567–578 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Rosenthal, D. I. et al. Association of human papillomavirus and p16 status with outcomes in the IMCL-9815 phase III registration trial for patients with locoregionally advanced oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated with radiotherapy with or without cetuximab. J. Clin. Oncol. 34, 1300–1308 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Magrini, S. M. et al. Cetuximab and radiotherapy versus cisplatin and radiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer: a randomized phase II trial. J. Clin. Oncol. 34, 427–435 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Chera, B. S. et al. Phase 2 trial of de-intensified chemoradiation therapy for favorable-risk human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 93, 976–985 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ferris, R. L. et al. Nivolumab for recurrent squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. N. Engl. J. Med. 375, 1856–1867 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Chow, L. Q. M. et al. Antitumor activity of pembrolizumab in biomarker-unselected patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: results from the phase Ib KEYNOTE-012 expansion cohort. J. Clin. Oncol. 34, 3838–3845 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Seiwert, T. Y. et al. Safety and clinical activity of pembrolizumab for treatment of recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (KEYNOTE-012): an open-label, multicentre, phase 1b trial. Lancet Oncol. 17, 956–965 (2016).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Chow, L. Q. M. et al. Biomarkers and response to pembrolizumab (pembro) in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) [abstract]. J. Clin. Oncol. 34 (Suppl.), 6010 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alain P. Algazi is at the Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of California, San Francisco, 1600 Divisadero Street, Room A739, San Francisco, California 94116, USA.,

    Alain P. Algazi

  2. Jennifer R. Grandis is at the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute, University of California, San Francisco, 550 16th Street, Box 0558, San Francisco, California 94113, USA.,

    Jennifer R. Grandis

Authors
  1. Alain P. Algazi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jennifer R. Grandis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer R. Grandis.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

A.P.A. receives research support from Acerta, AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb, MedImmune, Merck, Novartis, and OncoSec. J.R.G. declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Algazi, A., Grandis, J. A watershed year for improvements in treatment?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 14, 76–78 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.196

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.196

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer