Head and neck cancer up next for Jemperli

GSK’s choice of head and neck cancer as the next pivotal setting for Jemperli is brave. This cancer has proved tough for anti-PD-(L)1 drugs, but despite this a recently unveiled entry on clinicaltrials.gov reveals that the phase 3 Jade study will begin next month, comparing Jemperli against placebo in non-metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Jemperli monotherapy is in pivotal development in just two other cancers – endometrial (its approved setting) and colon – while combinations with inhibitors of PARP, Tim-3 or TIGIT involve ovarian and lung cancers. Keytruda, Opdivo, Imfinzi and Bavencio have failed in eight key phase 3 trials in head and neck cancer, but a closer look at the design of Jade suggests some reason for optimism. This study will test Jemperli in an unusual setting, in patients eligible for surgery but whose tumours have yet to be resected, and who are still in response to chemoradiotherapy. It’s in this “curative intent” maintenance setting that Jemperli succeeded in a Memorial Sloan Kettering-sponsored trial in anal cancer, on the back of which GSK has begun the phase 2 Azur-1 and phase 3 Azur-2 colon cancer studies.

Phase 3 successes and failures in squamous head & neck cancer

Source: OncologyPipeline.