Pembrolizumab as first-line treatment for recurrent and metastatic head and neck cancer - real-world single-centre data.

Abstract

Background and purpose: The randomised clinical trial KEYNOTE-048 has demonstrated a significant increase in survival for patients with head and neck cancer treated with pembrolizumab with or without chemotherapy. The purpose of the present retrospective study was to investigate whether survival in a group of consecutive patients treated at our department was comparable to the results from KEYNOTE-048.

Patients/material and methods: Seventy-six patients initiated treatment with pembrolizumab ± platinum/5-FU between July 2020 and May 2022. Baseline characteristics were collected, response rates and survival times were calculated and compared to those published from KEYNOTE-048.

Results and interpretation: Fifty-one percent of patients had locoregional recurrence and 47% had distant metastases. Median progression-free survival was 5.5 months, and median overall survival (OS) was 12.3 months in the total cohort. OS was significantly higher for patients with combined positive score (CPS) ≥20 (14.6 months) than for patients with CPS 1-19 (7.3 months) (p = 0.04). There was no significant difference in survival times between patients ± 65 years of age or between patients with locoregional disease versus distant metastases. In conclusion, the results from KEYNOTE-048 were corroborated in a consecutive cohort of patients treated at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.