ESMO 2025 | Head and neck cancer at ESMO 2025: OrigAMI-4, ASPEN-04, and CompARE

I think highlights for me, first of all, the data from OrigAMI-4, in which we’ve shown that amivantamab, as a subcutaneous formulation given on a three-weekly schedule in patients with relapsed and or metastatic head and neck cancer, has yielded an overall response rate in the second and third line setting in HPV-unrelated disease that has previously been treated with immune checkpoint blockade and platinum-based chemotherapy has yielded an overall response rate of 45% with significant durability of response, impressive progression-free survival data, and we wait to see what the overall survival data will look like. So that looks like a really interesting agent and will be developed further in a forthcoming phase three clinical trial in the first line. For me, another highlight has been the findings from a Chinese group that has demonstrated that perioperative camrelizumab, given around the time of surgery and chemoradiation, has been associated with improvement in outcomes in that group in terms of event or progression-free survival events. And we’re seeing a good signal there in overall survival. So that, again, is a reinforcement of the data that came from the Keynote 689 study with pembrolizumab. Other than that, regrettably, we’ve seen a number of really quite negative results coming out of the study. So for the CD47 targeted agent evorpacept, we’ve seen negative phase two randomized studies, both with pembrolizumab and with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy and ASPEN-3 and ASPEN-4 respectively. We’ve seen negative data presented by Robert Haddad looking at the activity of an anti-LAG-3 and an anti-TIM-3 triplet combination. Neither of those agents was adding any benefit to standard of care immune checkpoint based around anti-PD-1 therapy. And again, that’s a rather disappointing finding in this study. We’ve also seen the data from Hisham Mahanna for the CompARE study where he was looking at the role of adjuvant durvalumab following completion of definitive chemoradiation for patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer here in a predominantly HPV positive population. But regrettably, again, that study failed to meet its primary endpoints. So unfortunately, we’ve seen a number of studies where we’ve seen negative data emerging, but we have seen some pointers towards the future, notably in perioperative treatment and now also with an EGFR targeted by specific antibody, which is going to progress into a randomized phase three in the first line setting. So, of course, always some cause for hope.

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