Pembrolizumab in treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: clinical cases and real-world practice

Abstract

Recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is a hard-to-treat pathology. median overall survival for standard chemotherapy regimens does not exceed 11 months. One of the factors decreasing treatment effectivenessis frequency of severe adverse events which are observed in every 2nd patient during standard therapy regimens. moreover, even if notable tumor regression is achieved, this effect is transient. Development of immunotherapy drugs, namely pembrolizumab, helps solve these problems. Clinical trials and real-world use of the drug show that in the 1st and 2nd therapy lines for recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, pembrolizumab allows to achieve persistent treatment response, increase overall survival, and decrease the frequency of adverse events.