A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.
Abstract
Increased overall survival with nivolumab albeit only 7.5 months vs 5.1 months, and a better quality of life.
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Ferris RL, Blumenschein G Jr et al. N Engl J Med 2016; 10.1056/NEJMoa1602252
Those with platinum-refractory recurrent squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck (about 70% of such cancers – J Clin Oncol 2015; 33: 3305–3313) have a median survival of only 6 months. 'No therapeutic options prolong survival among these patients.' Nivolumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody, blocks signals that prevent activated T cells from attacking the cancer thereby facilitating the immune system to clear the tumour. In this randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial, nivolumab resulted in longer overall survival than treatment with standard, single-agent therapy (hazard ratio for death, 0.70). In addition, side-effects were considerably less in those patients who received nivolumab. Also, patient-reported quality-of-life measures receiving nivolumab appeared to show a marginal improvement. Those who received conventional therapy, experienced a worsening of physical and social functioning (QLQ-C30) as well as pain and sensory problems (QLQ-H&N35). In the nivolumab group there were two treatment-related deaths ascribed to pneumonitis and hypercalcemia.
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Nivolumab for recurrent squamous-cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Br Dent J 221, 632 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.860
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2016.860
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