Head and Neck Cancer Research

Head and neck oncology research evaluates organ-preserving therapies, immunotherapy combinations, and HPV-stratified treatment paradigms.

Our Head and Neck Cancer Analysis

• September 17, 2026JAMA OncologyVERSATILE-002 (Phase 2, nonrandomized)

  HPV16 Vaccine Plus Pembrolizumab Reaches a 34% Response Rate in Checkpoint-Naive Head and Neck Cancer, but 0% After Prior Checkpoint Inhibitor Therapy

  VERSATILE-002 was a phase 2, open-label, multicenter, nonrandomized trial of the HPV16 E6/E7 peptide vaccine PDS0101 combined with pembrolizumab in HPV16-positive recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. 87 patients were treated in two separately analyzed cohorts: immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-naive and ICI-resistant.

• September 22, 2026Nature MedicinePATHFINDER 2 (NCT05155605)

  Multi-Cancer Blood Test Reaches 60% Positive Predictive Value and 99.6% Specificity in Largest Prospective Screening Study to Date

  PATHFINDER 2, a prospective, interventional cohort study of 35,878 adults aged 50 and older with no clinical suspicion of cancer, evaluated the performance and safety of a blood-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test that analyzes cell-free DNA methylation patterns to detect a shared cancer signal and predict its tissue of origin.

• August 20, 2026JAMA Oncology

  Industry Now Outpaces Federal Cancer Trial Sponsorship Nearly 5 to 1 — And the Gap Is Widening

  A registry-based analysis of 11,681 US interventional cancer trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between 2008 and 2024 found that industry sponsors now outnumber federal sponsors nearly 5 to 1 (4.53-to-1 overall), with the ratio widening from 2.72-to-1 in 2008–2012 to 6.44-to-1 in 2019–2024.