Phase II Trial of Adjuvant Cisplatin and Radiation With Pembrolizumab in Resected Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Summary

The purpose of this research study is to test the safety and the benefit of adding pembrolizumab (a therapy that activates the immune system to fight cancer) to standard of care treatment for head and neck cancer. The standard of care treatment will include surgery followed by radiation for 6 weeks. Some patients may also receive cisplatin as standard of care once a week for 6 weeks if the cancer is found to be "high risk". High risk includes cancer that was not completely removed (positive margins) or cancer that has invaded through the outer lining of your lymph nodes.

Timeline

Start

2016-01

Primary completion

2021-04-16

Completion

2026-11-02

Publications

• Bandaru R, Fu H, Zheng H, Liang J, Wang L, Gulati S, Hinrichs BH, Teng M, Zhang B, Kocherginsky M, Lin DC, Hildeman DA, Worden FP, Old M, Dunlap NE, Kaczmar JM, Gillison ML, El-Gamal D, Wise Draper T, Liu Y. Genome-wide variation in cell-free DNA end-motif entropy predicts immunotherapy response in head and neck cancer. J Clin Invest. 2026 May 19;136(13):e196284. doi: 10.1172/JCI196284. eCollection 2026 Jul 1.

Drugs

Indications