Scientists have discovered a new drug combination that could be crucial in reducing the risk of neck and head cancer
According to a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, scientists were successful in discovering a new drug combination that could be crucial in reducing the risk of neck and head cancer.
"Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is the most common type of head and neck cancer," said Dong Moon Shin, M.D., professor of hematology, medical oncology and otolaryngology at Emory University School of Medicine, and director of the Cancer Chemoprevention Program at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. "The survival rate for patients with SCCHN is very poor. An effective prevention approach is desperately needed, especially since we can identify patients who are at extremely high risk: those with advanced oral precancerous lesions."
Prior research suggest epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) played an important role in promoting SCCHN, Shin and colleagues believed combining an EGFR inhibitor and a COX-2 inhibitor could provide an effective chemopreventive approach.
The study was conducted on 11 patients who were diagnosed with advanced oral precancerous lesions. They were assigned to treatment with erlotinib and celecoxib. Tissue samples from the patients were obtained and evaluated pathologically at three, six and 12 months after therapy initiation. Biopsies at baseline and follow-up were available for seven patients.
"Finding that this drug combination caused some advanced premalignant lesions to completely disappear was great news," Shin said. "Advanced premalignant lesions rarely regress, so our data are proof-of-principle that a combination chemopreventive strategy with molecularly targeted agents is possible."
Sever adverse side effects caused many patients to drop out of the trial, according to Shin.
"Prevention is not achieved through short-term treatment," he said. "So, we need to investigate the safety and toxicity of this combination further before planning a large-scale trial. We are also looking to combination therapies using less toxic or nontoxic agents, such as natural compounds."
