Role for Afatinib in p16-Negative Head and Neck Cancer?

In this video, Barbara Burtness, MD, of the Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, discusses results of LUX-Head & Neck 2, a randomized, placebo-controlled, phase III trial that tested afatinib as adjuvant therapy after chemoradiation in patients with unresected high/intermediate-risk, squamous cell head and neck cancer.

The trial was halted for futility last year when an independent panel determined afatinib was unlikely to provide benefit in this group of patients, though subgroup analyses suggest that some may derive benefit.

Results of the study (abstract 6001) were presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, held June 2–6 in Chicago.