Head and neck cancer patients are being recruited to a clinical trial AHEAD-MERIT which makes use of BNT113 , a cancer vaccine. The trial will compare the use of BNT113 and pembrolizumab to using pembrolizumab alone. It is aimed at patients whose cancer has come back or metastasised and is linked to the human papilloma virus (HPV) and is also PD-L1 positive. Eligible cancers are those affecting the mouth, oropharynx, hypopharynx or larynx.
Pembrolizumab is an immunotherapy drug now used widely in treating head and neck cancer but this is the first time a vaccine, based on mRNA technology has been employed. It will train the body’s immune system to fight the cancer.
More than 100 patients will take part in this phase 2 study which will run at 15 hospitals over the next year. The trial is the third to be run through the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad which is supported by the CRUK-funded Southampton Clinical Trials Unit.
HPV causes over 100,000 cancer cases a year across Europe. As well as cervical cancers it causes cancers at other sites including the head and neck. The incidence of oropharyngeal cancer in men has now overtaken that of cervical cancer in women in the UK. Gender-neutral vaccination (GNV) against HPV will play an important role in preventing such cancers in the future