Researchers looking to de-intensify radiation treatments for people with early-stage, HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer to prevent long-term side effects halted a large, randomized Phase II/III trial after patients in the control arm reached a record high, two-year progression-free survival rate of 98%. De-intensified treatments involving a lower radiation dose and immunotherapy in place of chemotherapy did not perform as well as the more rigorous chemoradiation approach. Findings of the NRG Oncology HN005 trial were presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Annual Meeting .
"In cancer treatment, 98% progression-free survival at two years is a number you just don't see," said Sue S. Yom, MD, Ph.D.
, FASTRO, principal investigator of the trial and the Irwin Mark Jacobs and Joan Klein Jacobs Distinguished Professor in Head and Neck Cancer Radiation Oncology at the University of California, San Francisco. "It's the highest that has ever been published in the literature for head and neck cancer , and in and of itself, it is strong evidence that modern chemoradiation therapy is highly effective for these patients." "De-intensification of chemoradiation treatments for HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancers is of very high interest to patients and researchers, but our study makes clear that these approaches should remain very experimental.
Further work needs to be done to find ways that we can reduce side effects while maintaining these extremely high cure rate.
