Genmab drug halves death risk in head and neck cancer

A cancer drug combination just cut a hard number in half. Genmab said Oct. 28 that pairing its antibody petosemtamab with Keytruda helped. The combo cut the risk of death by 50%, versus Keytruda alone. That's in a Phase 3 trial of head and neck cancer. The trial is called LiGeR-HN1. It tested patients whose cancer had come back or spread. None of them had been treated for it yet.

Cutting death risk in half is a big result for any cancer trial. It's an even bigger deal for a hard-to-treat cancer like this one. It also validates a bet Genmab made in a big way. The company bought Merus for $8 billion. Merus specializes in a two-pronged kind of antibody, called 'bispecific.' Petosemtamab is built on that same idea. It grabs onto two different targets on a cancer cell at once, not just one.

Keep reading — what to watch

Does this result hold up as the data matures? This is only the first interim analysis. It isn't the final survival numbers yet. Genmab still needs more mature data. It also needs an FDA filing before the drug could reach patients. So what to watch next is simple. Does the benefit keep holding as more patients are followed for longer?