Breakthrough in cancer treatment!

Experimental drug completely destroyed tumors in patients for whom therapy no longer worked

The international medical community is discussing clinical trial results that many experts already describe as one of the most promising achievements in modern oncology. An experimental therapy based on the drug amivantamab has demonstrated the ability not only to slow disease progression, but to completely eliminate some tumors in patients with advanced cancer who no longer responded to standard treatments, The Guardian reports.

The results were presented at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology conference – the world’s largest oncology forum. Particular attention was drawn to the fact that the study involved patients with extremely limited treatment options: most had already undergone chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but their disease continued to progress or return.

Patients from 11 countries participated in the study. In total, 102 people with head and neck cancer – the sixth most common cancer worldwide – received the drug. The results were significantly better than expected.

In 43 patients, tumors significantly shrank or completely disappeared after treatment began. In 28 cases, a marked reduction in tumor size was observed, while in 15 patients doctors were unable to detect any tumor after therapy. The first positive changes were recorded within just a few weeks.

Professor Kevin Harrington from the Institute of Cancer Research in London described the results as unprecedented for patients whose disease had become resistant to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy. According to him, this is a group with very limited treatment options, making this level of response particularly significant and potentially impactful for thousands of patients annually.

Amivantamab works through multiple mechanisms simultaneously, which is why it is often referred to as a “triple attack” on cancer. It blocks EGFR, a protein involved in tumor growth, suppresses the MET pathway responsible for treatment resistance, and also activates the patient’s immune system to fight cancer cells.

Another key feature is its mode of administration. The drug is given as a subcutaneous injection once every three weeks, rather than long intravenous infusions typical for many cancer therapies. Side effects were mostly mild to moderate, and fewer than 10% of patients discontinued treatment due to adverse reactions.

One of the first participants was 56-year-old Carl Walsh from Birmingham. After being diagnosed with tongue cancer and failing both chemotherapy and immunotherapy, he joined the OrigAMI-4 trial. Within a few treatment cycles, his condition began to improve rapidly: swelling decreased, pain reduced, and he eventually returned to normal eating and daily life. A symbolic milestone for him was being able to eat a steak again after a long period of liquid-only nutrition.

Researchers emphasize that the results are particularly important due to the complexity of the patient group: most had non-HPV head and neck cancers, which are typically more aggressive and harder to treat. The median overall survival after starting therapy was around 12.5 months, considered encouraging in such a poor-prognosis population.

Importantly, amivantamab is not a completely new drug: it was developed by Johnson & Johnson and has been approved in the US and EU since 2021, initially for certain types of lung cancer. Its potential is now being studied in around 60 clinical trials across different cancer types, including lung, colorectal, brain, and stomach cancers.

Despite the impressive results, experts urge cautious optimism. This is not a universal cancer cure, but a targeted therapy for specific tumor types and patient groups. However, the findings reinforce a key trend in modern oncology: a shift toward precision drugs that act on multiple key mechanisms of tumor growth simultaneously.