Pembrolizumab With or Without Chemotherapy in Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Updated Results of the Phase III KEYNOTE-048 Study

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Institut Català de la Salut

[Harrington KJ] The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, National Institute of Health Research Biomedical Research Centre, London, United Kingdom. [Burtness B] Yale Cancer Center and Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT. [Greil R] Salzburg Cancer Research Institute-Center for Clinical Cancer and Immunology Trials, Salzburg, Austria. Paracelsus Medical University Hospital, and Cancer Cluster Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria. [Soulières D] Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada. [Tahara M] National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan. [de Castro G Jr] Instituto do Cancer do Estado de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. [Brana I, Basté N] Vall d’Hebron Hospital Universitari, Barcelona, Spain. Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Barcelona, Spain

Vall d'Hebron Barcelona Hospital Campus

Publication date

2023-03-03T08:11:55Z

2023-03-03T08:11:55Z

2023-02-01

Abstract

Pembrolizumab; Carcinoma de células escamosas de cabeza y cuello


Pembrolizumab; Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma


Pembrolizumab; Carcinoma de cèl·lules escamoses de cap i coll


PURPOSE Pembrolizumab and pembrolizumab-chemotherapy demonstrated efficacy in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in KEYNOTE-048. Post hoc analysis of long-term efficacy and progression-free survival on next-line therapy (PFS2) is presented. METHODS Patients were randomly assigned (1:1:1) to pembrolizumab, pembrolizumab-chemotherapy, or cetuximab-chemotherapy. Efficacy was evaluated in programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined positive score (CPS) ≥ 20, CPS ≥ 1, and total populations, with no multiplicity or alpha adjustment. RESULTS The median study follow-up was 45.0 months (interquartile range, 41.0-49.2; n = 882). At data cutoff (February 18, 2020), overall survival improved with pembrolizumab in the PD-L1 CPS ≥ 20 (hazard ratio [HR], 0.61; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.81) and CPS ≥ 1 populations (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.89) and was noninferior in the total population (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.97). Overall survival improved with pembrolizumab-chemotherapy in the PD-L1 CPS ≥ 20 (HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.46 to 0.84), CPS ≥ 1 (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.78), and total (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.85) populations. The objective response rate on second-course pembrolizumab was 27.3% (3 of 11). PFS2 improved with pembrolizumab in the PD-L1 CPS ≥ 20 (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.84) and CPS ≥ 1 (HR, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.95) populations and with pembrolizumab-chemotherapy in the PD-L1 CPS ≥ 20 (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.86), CPS ≥ 1 (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.55 to 0.81), and total (HR, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.61 to 0.88) populations. PFS2 was similar after pembrolizumab and longer after pembrolizumab-chemotherapy on next-line taxanes and shorter after pembrolizumab and similar after pembrolizumab-chemotherapy on next-line nontaxanes. CONCLUSION With a 4-year follow-up, first-line pembrolizumab and pembrolizumab-chemotherapy continued to demonstrate survival benefit versus cetuximab-chemotherapy in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. Patients responded well to subsequent treatment after pembrolizumab-based therapy.

Document Type

Article


Published version

Language

English

Publisher

American Society of Clinical Oncology

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https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.21.02508

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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