Head & Neck Cancers

Everett Vokes, MD, John E. Ultmann Professor of Medicine and Radiation Oncology, physician-in-chief, University of Chicago Medical Center, chair, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the possibility of moving immunotherapy agents into the frontline setting for patients with head and neck cancer.

In August 2016, the FDA approved pembrolizumab for patients with platinum-refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. Not only was it the first immunotherapy approved for head and neck cancer (HNC), but it marked the first new drug approval for HNC in the United States in 20 years.

Everett Vokes, MD, John E. Ultmann Professor of Medicine and Radiation Oncology, physician-in-chief, University of Chicago Medical Center, chair, Department of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses how to choose between nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for second-line treatment for patients with head and neck cancer.

Barbara Burtness, MD, professor of Medicine, Yale Cancer Center, discusses current treatment approaches for patients with human pappillomavirus (HPV)-positive head and neck cancer, as well as potential changes for those regimens.

NOTCH1 mutations have been found to define an aggressive subgroup of patients with adenoid cystic carcinomas, with a corresponding pattern of metastatic spread.

Tanguy Y. Seiwert, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses the current prognosis for patients with head and neck cancer prior to the FDA approvals of immunotherapy agents nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) as treatments.

Ramona Dadu, MD, assistant professor, Department of Endocrine Neoplasia and Hormonal Disorders, Division of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses treatment approaches in medullary thyroid cancer.

The addition of chemotherapy, either adjuvant or induction, to concomitant chemoradiotherapy achieved a significantly high survival benefit for patients with locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

Patients diagnosed with head and neck or lung cancer are especially prone to feelings of distress, especially depression, and researchers in the Netherlands have found that using a gradual or “stepped” approach to providing psychosocial support not only improves their quality of life but is also cost-effective.

Jonas de Souza, MD, assistant professor of Medicine, University of Chicago Medicine, discusses some of the upcoming next steps regarding immunotherapy in head and neck cancer.

Barbara Burtness, MD, professor of Medicine, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the use of immunotherapy in patients with head and neck cancer who have residual disease following treatment with chemotherapy and radiation.