Renata Ferrarotto, MD

Renata Ferrarotto, MD, Associate Professor, and Director of Head and Neck Clinical Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, called the efficacy results with cabozantinib plus atezolizumab in recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma “encouraging” given the difficult-to-treat patient population.

“[These results] are particularly noteworthy considering that all patients in the COSMIC-021 trial were platinum-pretreated, with a median number of prior lines of therapy of 2.5, patients were not selected based on PD-L1 status, and 30% had received a prior PD-1 inhibitor,” Dr. Ferrarotto told The ASCO Post.

“The results of this study in a heavily pretreated patient population, together with the data reported earlier this year at the 2022 ASCO Annual Meeting with cabozantinib plus pembrolizumab in the first-line setting, support further studies of cabozantinib and PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma,” Dr. Ferrarotto continued. “Identifying biomarkers of clinical benefit from the combination vs single-agent checkpoint inhibitor therapy will be important for patient selection.” 

DISCLOSURE: Dr. Ferrarotto reported no conflicts of interest.