LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Jeffrey Bumpous, M.D., the J. Samuel Bumgardner Endowed Professor and chief of the Division of Otolaryngology in University of Louisville’s Department of Surgery, has been named surgical co-chair of a national clinical trial for head and neck cancer.
The trial is named “Tryhard: A Phase II Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study of Lapatinib (Tykerb) for Non-HPV Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer with Concurrent Chemoradiation.” The trial is investigating the use of the drug lapatinib, marketed as Tykerb, in patients who are undergoing both chemotherapy and radiation therapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer but do not have human papillomavirus (HPV).
The trial is sponsored by the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group, a national clinical cooperative group funded by the National Cancer Institute and a key clinical research component of the American College of Radiology.
The drug lapatinib is in a class of medications called kinase inhibitors. It works by blocking the action of the abnormal protein that signals cancer cells to multiply. This helps stop or slow the spread of cancer cells. Lapatinib is used with another drug, capecitabine, to treat certain types of advanced breast cancer in people who have already been treated with other chemotherapy medications. The trial will explore its efficacy in head and neck cancer.
Bumpous is board-certified in otolaryngology, a medical specialty concerned with the ear, nose and throat. In addition to head and neck cancer, his areas of expertise include thyroid and parathyroid surgery and cranial base surgery. He is chair of the Cancer Committee of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at UofL and is a member of the editorial board of the national medical journal, Laryngoscope.