Chemo-immunotherapy approach shows potential benefit in patients with advanced HPV-negative head and neck cancer

Researchers from the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center have demonstrated the potential of a novel treatment approach including immunotherapy to treat advanced human papillomavirus (HPV)-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). More than half of study participants had 50% or more of their tumors shrink after receiving the immunotherapy drug nivolumab with chemotherapy, followed by response-adaptive chemo-radiation therapy.