The new therapy is called nivolumab, and in trials patients with head and neck cancer survived for longer than those who received chemotherapy. These types of cancer have very poor survival rates. The BBC reports that 36 percent of those treated with the drug nivolumab are alive after one year compared with just 17 percent who received chemotherapy. Even among the patient population who did not survive, those who were positive for the presence of HPV (human papillomavirus) survived an average of 9.1 months with nivolumab, compared with 4.4 months for those who were given conventional chemotherapy.
Immunotherapy drug is a game changer for cancer
