A new “smart jab” has shown highly promising results in shrinking head and neck cancer tumours within weeks, offering new hope to patients with few remaining treatment options.
The drug, amivantamab, works through a triple-action mechanism and can be delivered as a simple injection under the skin — a significant step forward from conventional treatments that require lengthy hospital infusions.
Results from the Orig-AMI 4 trial, presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology conference in Berlin, revealed that 76% of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer saw their tumours shrink or stop growing after receiving the drug. Responses appeared within an average of six weeks, and most side effects were mild to moderate.
“This could represent a real shift in how we treat head and neck cancer — not just in terms of effectiveness, but also in how we deliver care,” said Prof Kevin Harrington of the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. “Amivantamab is a smart drug that blocks two major cancer pathways and helps the immune system fight the disease.”
Head and neck cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide, and once it spreads or returns after standard therapies, treatment options are limited.
The trial involved patients from 11 countries, including the UK. Those treated with amivantamab had an average progression-free survival of 6.8 months.
Amivantamab targets two key growth pathways — EGFR and MET — while also activating the immune system to attack tumour cells.
One patient, Carl Walsh, 59, from Birmingham, said the treatment had already made a major difference: “Before starting the trial, I couldn’t talk properly and eating was difficult. The swelling has gone down a lot, and sometimes I even forget that I have cancer.”
Researchers say the findings mark an “incredibly encouraging” breakthrough that could make cancer treatment faster, more convenient, and potentially deliverable outside hospital settings in the future.
