New hope for patients with hard-to-treat head and neck cancers

Using a technique that looks for genes that tumor cells need to survive, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientists have identified a potential new drug for a class of difficult-to-treat head and neck cancers. The gene they identified as essential for these tumor cells to survive happens to be the target of an existing cancer drug, and an early-phase clinical trial will soon launch to help determine whether the drug can shrink tumors faster for patients with head and neck cancer. Read more here.