ASCO 2018 | A breakthrough for oral mucositis management with avisopasem manganese

Locally advanced head and neck cancer is treated with chemotherapy and radiation as standard, with an aim to cure the disease. Unfortunately, this therapy is associated with severe toxicity, primarily in the form of oral mucositis. In this video, recorded at the at the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) 2018 Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, Ezra Cohen, MD, FRCPC, FASCO, of the University of California, San Diego, CA, discusses a recent randomized trial (NCT02508389) which tested the impact of avisopasem manganese vs. a placebo on oral mucositis. The results were very promising: severe mucositis lasted an average of 3 weeks with the placebo, and only 1.5 days with the drug. Dr Cohen emphasizes the importance of this breakthrough for patient quality of life, and looks to future Phase III studies which will progress this research.