Breakthrough cancer injection to be tested in Portugal after “unprecedented” trial results

Key Points:

• A new injectable cancer drug, amivantamab, showing unprecedented results in international trials, is set for phase III testing in Portugal at five hospitals, targeting patients with incurable head and neck cancers.
• The drug demonstrated remarkable effectiveness by shrinking or eliminating tumors in patients resistant to conventional treatments, with 43 out of 102 patients responding positively in earlier trials.
• Amivantamab works by blocking two critical tumor growth pathways and enhancing the immune system's ability to attack cancer cells, and is administered via a convenient subcutaneous injection every three weeks.
• Portuguese trials will also explore amivantamab's potential for treating lung cancer, with possible future research into other cancers like colon, brain, and stomach cancers, as part of approximately 60 global clinical studies.
• If successful, this treatment could become widely available in Portugal within a few years, offering new hope to thousands of patients with difficult-to-treat cancers, including 2,500 to 3,000 head and neck cancer cases diagnosed annually in the country.