Ezra Cohen, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago, discusses the utility of inhibiting the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in head and neck cancer.

Cohen describes mTOR inhibition as being one of the more compelling targets in head and neck cancer. Drugs that inhibit mTOR, such as apamycin (sirolimus) and everolimus (Afinitor), are already approved for other indications and are currently being tested in head and neck cancer.

It remains difficult to determine how effective these therapies are as single agents, when given alone mTOR inhibition is most effective in the adjuvant setting and may help prevent recurrence. Adjuvant mTOR inhibition demonstrated efficacy in patients with minimal disease or no evidence of disease. Large or metastatic tumors, however, generally have multiple drivers and mTOR inhibition may not be as effective as a single agent.