ASCO 2026 | Integrating HPV-specific immunotherapy into head and neck cancer care
Ari Rosenberg, MD, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, discusses the potential integration of antigen-specific immunotherapy approaches into standard multimodality treatment paradigms for HPV-associated head and neck cancers, highlighting the need for randomized trials to validate their effectiveness. Ongoing trials in the metastatic setting with pembrolizumab and other HPV-specific therapeutic vaccine strategies will guide the design of future studies and testing these approaches in the neoadjuvant setting will be essential to improve outcomes and reduce toxicity. This interview took place during the 2026 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Meeting in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript
Yeah, I would say that randomized trials will be needed. The design of those should be guided by what is now quite a bit of accumulating data. There are multiple ongoing randomized trials in the current metastatic setting with pembrolizumab, with some of the other HPV-specific therapeutic vaccine strategies. But I think that we need to continue testing these in the neoadjuvant setting, both as a strategy to improve outcomes in patients with higher-risk HPV-positive head-and-neck cancer, as well as a strategy to try to de-escalate the toxicity associated with radiation...
Yeah, I would say that randomized trials will be needed. The design of those should be guided by what is now quite a bit of accumulating data. There are multiple ongoing randomized trials in the current metastatic setting with pembrolizumab, with some of the other HPV-specific therapeutic vaccine strategies. But I think that we need to continue testing these in the neoadjuvant setting, both as a strategy to improve outcomes in patients with higher-risk HPV-positive head-and-neck cancer, as well as a strategy to try to de-escalate the toxicity associated with radiation.
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