ReviewCureus2025
Real-World Evidence on the Effectiveness of Pembrolizumab in Patients With Recurrent/Metastatic/Unresectable Head and Neck Squamous Cell Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Immunotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer-Where Are We Now and Where Are We Headed?International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Efficacy of Pembrolizumab as a Second- or Third-Line Therapy in Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Multicenter Retrospective Study in Vietnamese Patients.Clinical Medicine Insights. Oncology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The aim of the review was to systematically review real-world data on the effectiveness and safety of pembrolizumab in recurrent/metastatic/unresectable head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) patients. Two independent reviewers retrieved the studies separately and simultaneously. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane Central were searched for prospective and retrospective studies on recurrent/metastatic/unresectable HNSCC patients treated with either pembrolizumab monotherapy or pembrolizumab combination therapy published till November 2024. Studies published in the English language and available as full-text articles were included while studies with patients treated with additional chemotherapeutic agents that do not include chemotherapy with fluorouracil, platinum, cetuximab, or radiotherapy were excluded. Outcomes were overall response rate, progression-free survival, overall survival, and adverse events. Forest plots were generated using RevMan software version 5.4 (2020; The Cochrane Collaboration, London, United Kingdom). The ROBINS-I (Risk Of Bias In Non-randomised Studies - of Interventions) tool was used for the assessment of the potential risk of bias and the quality of evidence was synthesized using GRADEpro (Evidence Prime Inc., Hamilton, Canada). We identified 5884 records, removed 2784 duplicate records, and screened 3100 studies. A total of 2931 records were excluded based on title/abstract. Of the remaining 169 articles, nine studies satisfied eligibility criteria and were included for final review. Pooled data suggested that 1006 patients were administered with pembrolizumab monotherapy while 448 patients received pembrolizumab combination therapy. Monotherapy improved the overall response rate compared to combination therapy. No significant difference in progression-free survival and overall survival was found between the two groups. Adverse events were reported less in pembrolizumab monotherapy compared to pembrolizumab combination therapy. The studies were assessed at high risk of bias and graded at low to very low quality of evidence. The study showed some beneficial effects of pembrolizumab monotherapy in recurrent/metastatic/unresectable HNSCC patients in real-world scenarios. However, more studies are required to generate robust evidence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.