FDA lifts partial hold on trials for durvalumab for treatment of head and neck cancer.-AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca has announced that the FDA has lifted the partial clinical hold on the enrollment of new patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) for clinical trials of durvalumab as monotherapy and in combination with tremelimumab or other potential medicines.

The Phase III KESTREL trial has already re-opened for new patient enrollment at some clinical study sites and the EAGLE trial is expected to resume recruitment shortly, without amendments to either protocol. AstraZeneca will progressively resume enrollment for all HNSCC trials across the participating sites in the US and globally, subject to national health authority and ethics committee approval where required. The status of active recruitment will be reflected on clinicaltrials.gov in the coming days.

The partial clinical hold on new patient enrollment was communicated on 27 October, after preliminary findings from ongoing clinical trials related specifically to head and neck cancer. The FDA lifted the partial clinical hold following a review of the comprehensive analysis provided by AstraZeneca of bleeding events that were observed as part of the routine safety monitoring of the Phase III KESTREL and EAGLE trials.