Health. ENT Cancer: A New Treatment After a 20-Year Wait

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas affect the mouth, throat, and larynx. These cancers, which account for 90% of head and neck tumors, are primarily linked to tobacco, alcohol, or the human papillomavirus.

Even when they can be operated on, some have a very high risk of recurrence, especially when the tumor has spread to the lymph nodes in the neck or cannot be completely removed surgically.

Until now, the standard treatment has combined surgery, radiotherapy, and cisplatin chemotherapy. Unfortunately, about half of high-risk patients saw their cancer recur despite this intensive protocol, and treatment options remained very limited.

Add immunotherapy…

But a study presented at the 2025 ASCO conference offers new hope. The NIVOPOSTOP study, coordinated by the French group GORTEC, which specializes in head and neck cancers, followed 680 patients under the age of 75 in six countries between 2018 and 2024.

All had undergone surgery for locally advanced cancer of the mouth, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx, and had at least one high-risk factor for relapse.

Participants were divided into two groups: the first received standard treatment, while the second also received nivolumab immunotherapy.

This drug, administered in ten courses over eight months, stimulates the immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells more effectively.

The results are particularly promising. The addition of immunotherapy reduces the risk of relapse or death by 24%. Specifically, the three-year recurrence-free survival rate increased from 52.5% with standard treatment to 63.1% with immunotherapy.

For Dr Yungan Tao, onco-radiotherapist at the Gustave-Roussy Institute (Villejuif), a specialist in head and neck cancers who coordinated the French part of the NIVOPOSTOP study, "even if data on overall survival of the disease are not yet available, the addition of immunotherapy to the current standard of care is set to become the therapeutic standard for these patients."