The immunotherapy injection of amivantamab shrank tumors in 42% of patients with recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer who were no longer responding to existing treatments. In the OrigAMI‑4 clinical trial by researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, involving 102 head and neck cancer patients, tumors were found to shrink or disappear completely in 43 patients.
This consisted of 15 patients with complete disappearance of tumors and 28 patients showed significant shrinkage of tumor size. Patients lived for a median of 12.5 months after starting treatment, although the prognosis of this group is usually very poor.
Amivantamab, developed by Johnson & Johnson, works in three ways. First, it blocks EFGR, a protein that helps tumors grow. Second, it blocks MET, which is a way for cancer cells to evade treatment. Finally, it helps activate the body's immune system to attack tumors. Amivantamab is currently undergoing 60 clinical trials for the treatment of lung, brain, colorectal and gastric cancers.
Another advantage of amivantamab treatment is that it only requires a small injection into a skin area rather than through an intravenous drip like chemotherapy. This makes treatment faster, easier, and more of an outpatient procedure. If these results are confirmed in larger studies like OrigAMI‑5, this treatment has the potential to help thousands of patients every year around the world.
