Ben Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers, along with their international colleagues, have validated a potential treatment for advanced head and neck cancers, the university announced on Sunday.
Their findings, which were published in the open-access, peer-reviewed Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, show that BGU researchers may have found potential novel treatments for head and neck cancers – which include throat cancer, mouth cancer, and other cancers that affect the region of your body above the shoulders.
By treating mice with a combination of immunotherapies, such as a therapy that blocks a specific signaling pathway that causes severe symptoms for over 40% of Head and neck cancer patients, researchers were able to completely cure tumors in most of the mice.
"Our unique ability to generate pre-clinical HNC (head and neck cancer) models and to investigate new treatment and treatment combinations provides hope for HNC patients,” said study co-author Prof. Moshe Elkabets of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben Gurion University of the Negev.
Located in Beersheba, Ben Gurion University of the Negev is renowned for its achievements in the fields of scientific and medical research.
“We sincerely hope that oncologists will test this treatment combination in HNC patients, as improving immunotherapy efficacy is crucial for prolonging the survival of cancer patients," Elkabets concluded.