ESMO 2018 | KEYNOTE-048: pembrolizumab monotherapy for frontline R/M HNSCC

Barbara Burtness, MD, of Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, discusses the results of the Phase III KEYNOTE-048 trial (NCT02358031), investigating pembrolizumab for the frontline treatment of recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The three-arm trial tested pembrolizumab alone compared to combination treatments incorporating cetuximab or pembrolizumab plus platinum and 5-FU backbone chemotherapy (EXTREME regimen). Prof. Burtness suggests that pembrolizumab monotherapy was better than the combination regimens in terms of overall median survival and toxicity in trial subpopulations. This video was recorded at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2018 Congress, in Munich, Germany.