Adjuvant Nivolumab Extends Disease-Free Survival in Patients with High-Risk Head and Neck Cancers

An interview with Jean Bourhis MD PhD, Head of Service of radiation oncology, Lausanne University Hospital, Lausanne, Switzerland.

And with:

Pat Price MD, Imperial College London, UK, Chair, Global Coalition for Radiotherapy.

SARAH MAXWELL

Disease free survival was extended in patients with head and neck cancers who had Nivolumab added to their standard post-operative therapy. I’m Sarah Maxwell. Welcome to this edition of the Audio Journal of Oncology.

Patients with high-risk cancers of the head and neck, had significant improvements in disease-free survival when treatment with the checkpoint inhibitor, nivolumab, was added to their standard chemo-radiotherapy after surgery. This finding was reported at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held in Chicago.

Radiation oncologist, Jean Bourhis, who is Head of the Radiation Oncology Service at Lausanne University Hospital, in Switzerland, has been telling Peter Goodwin more about his results from the NIVOPOSTOP phase III, randomized trial of adjuvant nivolumab:

INTERVIEW with:

Jean Bourhis MD PhD, Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland

To get a comment on what Jean Bourhis had to say, Peter also met up with radiation oncologist, Pat Price, from Imperial College in London, UK, chair of the Global Coalition for Radiotherapy.

INTERVIEW with:

Pat Price MD, Imperial College London, UK, Chair, Global Coalition for Radiotherapy.

Pat Price was talking with Peter Goodwin for the Audio Journal of Oncology. That’s all for now. We’ll be back with more news for cancer doctors very soon. So, join us again wherever you listen to your podcasts. From me, Sarah Maxwell, good-bye!

ASCO 2025 Abstract LBA2:

“NIVOPOSTOP (GORTEC 2018-01): A phase III randomized trial of adjuvant nivolumab added to radio-chemotherapy in patients with resected head and neck squamous cell carcinoma at high risk of relapse.”

Conclusions (From ASCO 2025 Abstract):

“Adjuvant nivolumab added to chemoradiotherapy after surgery provided a statistically and clinically meaningful disease-free survival improvement in PD-L1 all-comers patients. This is the first time in over two decades that a therapy demonstrated superiority over standard of care in patients with resected locally advanced squamous cell cancer of the head and neck at high risk of relapse.”