GOOD NEWS! A new cancer treatment has demonstrated unprecedented results in a large trial for cancer patients whose disease has become resistant to chemotherapy AND immunotherapy. Tumors shrank in OVER a third of participants, with 15 patients experiencing COMPLETE eradication of their tumors. The results were presented in Chicago at the world’s largest cancer conference, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). • jnj.com • ctvnews.ca 🧪🧵⬇️ More recently (September 13th) in the PAPILLON study, amivantamab-chemotherapy demonstrated the longest overall survival reported for EGFR exon 20 insertion-positive advanced NSCLC. Final overall survival analysis reports median survival of 34.3 months with amivantamab-chemotherapy versus 27.9 months with chemotherapy. • eurekalert.org Researchers have hailed “unprecedented” trial results that show a triple-action cancer injection can eradicate entire tumors in patients. In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments. The injection, known as amivantamab, shrank the tumors of more than a third of patients, with dramatic changes seen WITHIN WEEKS. In 15 of them, researchers found amivantamab had melted away their tumors altogether. Amivantamab is a targeted bispecific antibody and works by targeting cancer in three ways. It blocks both EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), a protein that helps tumors grow, and MET, a pathway that cancer cells often use to escape treatment. It also helps activate the immune system to attack the tumor. What some may not know is that Amivantamab (brand name Rybrevant) used to treat certain types of advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with specific EGFR mutations, was approved last year by the FDA to be given under the skin, which is called a subcutaneous (SQ) injection, for adult patients with the same conditions where amivantamab is already approved to be given through a vein, or intravenously (IV). You can find out Amivantamab works here: • cancer-research-network.com So keep in mind, it’s approved for certain types of NSCLC but has not expanded to being approved for other types of cancer YET. • fda.gov • lungcancerresearchfoundation.org In this trial, 102 patients with head and neck cancer, the world’s sixth most common cancer, were given the injection. Tumors shrank or disappeared completely in 43 patients, including 28 whose tumors shrank significantly and 15 who saw them eradicated entirely. Researchers said the injection had also shown similar results in patients with lung cancer. Unlike many cancer treatments, amivantamab is given as a tiny injection under the skin rather than via an intravenous drip, making treatment quicker and more convenient for patients and much easier to deliver in outpatient clinics. Most side-effects of the treatment, given once every three weeks, were mild to moderate, with fewer than one in 10 patients forced to stop their treatment. Researchers also highlighted that the trial focused on people with head and neck cancers that did not include those with human papillomavirus (HPV) positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. This is particularly significant, they said, since head and neck cancers not caused by HPV are usually harder to treat, making progress in this group hugely important. Patients receiving amivantamab lived for a median of 12.5 months overall after starting treatment, despite having a form of cancer with very poor outcomes, once standard treatments stop working. Amivantamab is now being evaluated in about 60 clinical trials, primarily for lung cancer, but also for colorectal, brain and gastric cancers. You can read all this and more here: • eurekalert.org • jnj.com • cancernetwork.com • lungcancerresearchfoundation.org • oncolink.org • cancer-research-network.com