Scientists test drug duo in brief window before cancer surgery

This is a small, early-stage study to learn how head and neck cancer tumors respond to a short course of two drugs, imatinib and cetuximab, given in the time between diagnosis and the start of standard treatment like surgery or radiation. Researchers will take small tumor samples before and after the drug combination to see if it changes the cancer cells. The main goal is to gather information to see if this approach is worth studying further in larger trials.