Dr. Machiels on Ongoing Trial of Pembrolizumab Plus Chemoradiation in HNSCC

Jean-Pascal Machiels, MD, head of the Department of Medical Oncology, Cliniques Universitaires Sain-Luc, discusses an ongoing clinical trial of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) combined with chemoradiation in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).

Data in the recurrent setting suggest that anti—PD-1 therapy improves survival, as seen with nivolumab (Opdivo) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda). Therefore, researchers are interested in improving outcomes with the combination of pembrolizumab plus chemoradiation.