New Delhi: Doctors have hailed "unprecedented" trial results that show a triple-action cancer jab can shrink entire tumours in patients, a report on The Guardian has reported .
In an international trial by scientists from The Institute of Cancer Research, London, spanning 11 countries, the drug was offered to 102 patients with head and neck cancer in whom the disease had spread or come back. These are also patients in whom cancer has failed to respond to standard treatments. “Head and neck cancers not caused by HPV are usually harder to treat and tend to respond less well to standard therapies, making progress in this group particularly important,” The Institute of Cancer Research has noted.
The trial yielded "encouraging" results, doctors were quoted as having said by the institute. Tumours shrank or disappeared completely in 43 patients, including 28 whose tumours shrank significantly and 15 who saw them eradicated entirely, The Guardian’s report said. The results are based on blinded independent central review (BICR), where outcomes were checked by external experts who did not know which treatment each patient received, helping ensure the results are fair, unbiased, and reliable, The Institute of Cancer Research added.
Researchers were also quoted as having said that the injection had shown similar results in patients with lung cancer and is now being evaluated in about 60 clinical trials, primarily for lung cancer, but also for colorectal, brain and gastric cancers.
Unlike many cancer treatments, the amivantamab drug is given as a simple injection under the skin rather than via an intravenous drip, making treatment quicker for patients and making the drug potentially easier to deliver in outpatient clinics. Kevin Harrington, a professor of biological cancer therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, and consultant oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust, said: "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."
The reports essay that the drug targets cancer in three ways. It blocks both EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor), a protein that helps tumours grow, and MET, a pathway that cancer cells often use to escape treatment, and also helps to activate the immune system to attack the tumour.
One of the first patients to benefit was Carl Walsh, 56, who was diagnosed with tongue cancer in May 2024 and joined the OrigAMI-4 trial at the Royal Marsden in July 2025. Walsh was initially treated with both, chemotherapy and immunotherapy, which proved unsuccessful. It was at this point that he was recommended for the OrigAMI-4 trial. He said, “Before starting the trial, I struggled to speak properly and found eating difficult because of the swelling and pain…Since beginning treatment, the swelling has reduced significantly, and my pain levels have improved considerably. I'm also no longer experiencing the same life-impacting side-effects that I had during chemotherapy."
The results were to be presented on Sunday in Chicago at the world's largest cancer conference, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).