Doctors have reported breakthrough trial results showing a “triple-action” cancer injection that can completely eradicate tumours in some patients with advanced disease.

Axar.az reports, citing The Guardian, the international study, conducted across 11 countries, tested the drug amivantamab on 102 patients with head and neck cancer whose disease had returned or stopped responding to chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

Researchers found tumours shrank or disappeared in 43 patients, including 15 cases where the cancer was eliminated entirely.

Professor Kevin Harrington of the Institute of Cancer Research described the findings as “unprecedentedly strong responses” for a group with very limited treatment options.

“This is a group of patients for whom treatment options are extremely limited, so seeing this level of benefit is very striking,” he said.

The treatment, developed by Johnson & Johnson, works by targeting cancer growth pathways and activating the immune system, and is administered as a small injection under the skin every three weeks.

Researchers said the results, to be presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, could mark a significant advance in treating difficult head and neck cancers, particularly those not linked to HPV infection.