CEL-SCI Corporation announced that a third-party study published on March 6, 2025 in JAMA Oncology titled “Neoadjuvant Nivolumab Plus Chemotherapy Followed by Response-Stratified Chemoradiation Therapy in HPV-Negative Head and Neck Cancer: The DEPEND Phase 2 Non-randomized Clinical Trial” provided data that support Multikine’s use as a neoadjuvant treatment in patients with tumors having low PD-L1 expression in its upcoming confirmatory head and neck cancer Registration Trial.
“With these latest findings published in JAMA, industry is taking notice. We believe there is growing interest in Multikine as an advanced clinical stage asset that can prolong life for about 70% of head and neck cancer patients whose tumors have low PD-L1 expression,” stated CEL-SCI’s CEO Geert Kersten.
The DEPEND study evaluated nivolumab as a neoadjuvant immunotherapy in human papilloma virus (HPV)–negative locoregionally advanced head and neck cancer. Nivolumab is already an FDA approved treatment for recurrent metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. The authors of the JAMA publication stated: “Taken together the DEPEND results further support the importance of PD-L1 expression as a predictive biomarker with immunotherapy trials in curative intent setting and may be an important selection criterion in subsequent trials”.
The findings of the DEPEND study are very important and timely. They are similar to the findings in CEL-SCI’s Phase 3 study, namely that PD-L1 inhibitors such as Opdivo work best in patients who have high levels of PD-L1, but do not work well in patients with low or zero levels of PD-L1. Conversely, Multikine, which has a very different mechanism of action, worked best in patients who have low to zero levels of PD-L1. This underscores the potential of Multikine to address a critical unmet need amongst newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients whose tumors have low PD-L1 expression, representing about 70% of this patient population.
The DEPEND Phase 2 data also confirm the independent findings reviewed by the FDA’s recent Oncologic Advisory Committee meeting (September 2024) on the use of checkpoint inhibitors including blockbuster drugs nivolumab and pembrolizumab, which appear to not work well in patients with low PD-L1 expression. To CEL-SCI’s knowledge, Multikine is the only oncology drug with solid data showing overall survival benefit when used as a neoadjuvant treatment in newly diagnosed locally advanced head and neck cancer patients whose tumors have low PD-L1 expression.
Multikine is an investigational cancer immunotherapy (treatment) given to newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients before the primary standard of care treatment. CEL-SCI’s confirmatory Registration Trial, which has received the FDA’s go-ahead, will enroll patients with previously untreated resectable disease, stage 3 and 4 head and neck cancer who have low PD-L1 tumor expression and no lymph node involvement. During CEL-SCI’s completed Phase 3 clinical trial, the 5-year survival rate of this target patient population increased to 73% when patients were treated with Multikine before standard of care vs 45% for control patients who received only the standard of care treatments.
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