Retreatment with nivolumab for patients with recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer

Abstract

Background

After treatment with an immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) is discontinued, retreatment with an ICI is a potential sequential treatment, but the clinical efficacy/safety data for this treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer (R/M-HNC) are limited.

Aims/Objectives

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of retreatment with nivolumab in R/M HNC.

Materials and Methods

We divided the 29 eligible R/M-HNC patients who discontinued ICI treatment at our hospital into two cohorts to analyze the clinical characteristics and the efficacy of the salvage therapy: the Niv cohort (nivolumab retreatment) and the no-Niv cohort (no nivolumab retreatment).

Results

The Niv cohort's median overall survival (OS) of 17.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.7–32.3) was significantly prolonged compared to that of the no-Niv cohort: 5.8 months (95%CI: 2.4–9.2, p = .034). The Niv cohort achieved objective response rate of 16.7% and a disease control rate of 50.0%. No adverse events > grade 3 occurred in the Niv cohort.

Conclusion

Nivolumab retreatment is an option for sequential treatment post-immunotherapy.

Chinese Abstract

背景：免疫检查点抑制剂 (ICI) 治疗停止后, 用ICI再治疗是一种潜在的续后治疗, 但这种治疗对复发性和/或转移性头颈癌 (R/M-HNC)的临床疗效/安全性数据很有限。

目的：本研究旨在评估用nivolumab复治R/M HNC的疗效和安全性。

材料和方法：我们将在我院停止 ICI 治疗的 29 名符合条件的 R/M-HNC 患者分为两组：Niv 组（用nivolumab 复治）和无-Niv 组（无 nivolumab 复治）, 分析临床特点及救治疗效。

结果：Niv 组的中位总生存期 (OS) 为 17.5 个月（95% 置信区间 [CI]：2.7–32.3）, 与无 Niv 组相比长多了, 后者为5.8 个月（95%CI：2.4–9.2, p = .034）。 Niv 组实现了 16.7% 的客观缓解率和50.0%的疾病控制率。 Niv 组未发生 大于3 级的不良事件。

结论：nivolumab复治是免疫治疗后后续治疗的一种选择。

Keywords:

• Retreatment
• nivolumab
• head and neck cancer
• recurrent
• metastatic

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.