Researchers led by Dr Francis Hunter and Dr Stephen Jamieson in the Auckland Cancer Society Research Centre have published an article entitled ‘Evofosfamide for the treatment of human papillomavirus-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma’ in the journal JCI Insight. The study investigated the preclinical efficacy (including combinations with radiotherapy and immunotherapy), target engagement, preliminary predictive biomarkers and initial clinical activity of evofosfamide as a novel therapy for human papillomavirus-negative head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.
Contributing authors from the School of Medical Sciences included Professor Bill Wilson, Professor Cristin Print and Professor Stefan Bohlander, Dr Purvi Kakadia, Dr Nicholas Knowlton, Dr Kevin Hicks and Dr Tet Woo Lee and students and technicians Peter Tsai, Avik Shome, Way Wong, Dan Li, Courtney Lynch and Cho Hong. Several collaborators at the Auckland District Health Board, MD Anderson Cancer Center, the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Threshold Pharmaceuticals and a number of academic hospitals in the US also contributed.
JCI Insight is an emerging journal from the publishers of the Journal for Clinical Investigation and will receive its first impact factor in 2019. Articles published in its first year received an average of 10 citations.
Partial response to evofosfamide monotherapy in an example head and neck squamous cell carcinoma case. This 71-year-old woman presented with a recurrent, poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the neck and oral cavity metastatic to lymph nodes that was previously treated with cetuximab, radiotherapy, and surgery. At baseline, the coronal CT (left panel) shows recurrent tumour centred in the left oropharynx, extending from the region of the palate to the lateral and posterior pharyngeal wall, with inferior extension into the hypopharynx. The patient received evofosfamide (480 mg/m2 qw × 3 per 28-day cycle), with partial response noted at cycles 2 (right panel) and 4. Disease progression based on target lesions was observed at cycle 6.