Symptoms can differ depending on where the cancer is located, but they may include a persistent sore throat, hoarseness, a slightly stuffy nose, or a lump, with or without pain.
Standard treatments for head and neck cancer include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapies, immunotherapies, or a combination of some or all of them. These treatments can be incredibly uncomfortable.
Chemotherapy can cause some patients to experience hearing loss or neuropathy. Throw in radiotherapy, and some patients may have side effects including
tooth decay, jaw stiffness, or, in Holtz’s case, a
dry mouth, difficulty tasting food, and weight loss.
When Age Isn’t Just a Number
If diagnosed early, head and neck cancer is often treatable. Two-thirds of patients, however, have advanced to stages III or IV by the time they are diagnosed, which can lead to a poorer prognosis, including recurrence after surgery and metastasis, which is cancer that spreads to other areas of the body. For these patients, a five-year survival rate is
less than 50 percent, meaning about half of them will die from their disease within five years.
Aging can add new complications to cancer treatment. First, cancer is more prevalent in older people — a lot more prevalent. Compared to younger individuals, there is an
11-fold increased chance of developing cancer for people older than 65. Patients 65 years and older account for
over half of new head and neck squamous cell cancer diagnoses each year.
Why does the incidence rate increase so dramatically? The older a person gets, the higher the chance of developing
comorbidities (two or more significant conditions at a time). The chance of having two or more serious conditions is 60 percent between the ages of 75 and 79, and this number skyrockets to 75 percent between 85 and 89.
The aging body can
cause people to experience more side effects from drugs, including from cisplatin, a type of chemotherapy medication often
used in combination with radiotherapy to treat head and neck squamous cell cancer.
Broad access to clinical trials in this population is challenging due to an increased prevalence of comorbidities and aging-related conditions. However, people around the world are living longer than ever before, and one in six people will be 60 or older by the year 2030. As the population-age increases, more and more elderly patients are diagnosed with head and neck cancer although many are not eligible to receive standard cisplatin-based concurrent chemoradiation. This means that chemoradiation-related toxicities, treatment burden, and compliance (sticking to a treatment regimen) are a growing concern.
NBTXR3 is Being Evaluated as a Head and Neck Cancer Treatment for Elderly Patients
Outcomes for elderly patients are generally worse than for younger patients – but does this need to be the case?
NANORAY-312 is a global phase III registration study evaluating the safety and efficacy of radiotherapy-activated NBTXR3 for high-risk elderly patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer who are ineligible for cisplatin.
We have seen data from our phase I head and neck cancer study suggesting that NBTXR3 may improve outcomes for elderly patients with an even worse prognosis than those being recruited for the phase III study. This study has shown a
median overall survival of 23 months in evaluable patients and median progression free survival of 17.9 months in this patient group. Moreover, the administration of NBTXR3 was feasible and well-tolerated in a population with the burden of comorbidities and disease.
Addressing the needs of patients, including elderly, frail patients, is our number one priority. We will remain tireless in our efforts to bring the potential benefits of NBTXR3 to patients around the world so that they may live longer and continue spending time with their family and friends and do the things they enjoy.
Interested in learning more about NBTXR3 clinical studies? Please visit
this page if you are a patient or
this page if you are a healthcare provider and make sure to follow us on
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