Immutep Reports 17.6-Month Survival Data for Head and Neck Cancer Therapy

Immutep has reported strong results from its phase IIb trial, showing that combining its LAG-3 candidate eftilagimod alfa with Merck's Keytruda led to a median overall survival of 17.6 months in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with very low PD-L1 expression (CPS <1). This result significantly surpasses historical outcomes from standard treatments, which typically include chemotherapy and have yielded much shorter survival times. The combination regimen demonstrated a favorable safety profile, with no new safety signals observed, and achieved a marked increase in response rates and survival compared to previous data. Up to 20% of first-line HNSCC patients fall into this difficult-to-treat category, which currently lacks approved immunotherapy-only options, underscoring the high unmet medical need. Immutep has requested a meeting with the FDA to discuss potential paths to approval based on these promising results. The company plans to continue data collection and provide further updates later in the year.