Trial reportJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2025
Randomized Phase II Study of Concurrent Versus Sequential Pembrolizumab in Combination With Chemoradiation in Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancer.
Trial report in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 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
21 citing papers in PubMed.
- JADE: phase 3 study of sequential dostarlimab post chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced unresected HNSCC.Future oncology (London, England) · 2026Trial
- Treatment-related lymphopenia predicts long-term survival in locally advanced head and neck cancer:Frontiers in immunology · 2026Trial
- Tumoral and Systemic Immune Correlates of Response to Concurrent Pembrolizumab and Chemoradiotherapy in Patients with Resected High-Risk Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026Article
- Non-Metastatic Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oropharynx: Primary Surgery or (Chemo)radiotherapy?Head & neck · 2026Review
- Review
- The DNA damage response and cancer immunotherapy.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2026Review
- RAPTOR Silencing Inhibits Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Progression via Regulation of S100A8/A9 and Urokinase Plasminogen Activator.Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research · 2026Article
- Sequencing Immunotherapy and Hypofractionated Radiotherapy in Frail Patients with Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Article
- Radiation-induced remodeling of the T cell landscape in head and neck cancer.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2026Review
- Unraveling the molecular landscape: an overview on gene expression, epigenetic alterations, and therapeutic challenges in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Molecular genetics and genomics : MGG · 2026Review
- Sequential immune checkpoint inhibition after palliative radiotherapy in patients with advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A retrospective cohort study.Molecular and clinical oncology · 2026Article
- Advances in the research on radiotherapy for lung cancer: a 2025 review.Translational lung cancer research · 2026Review
- Timing matters: concurrentTranslational cancer research · 2026Article
- CD4Journal for immunotherapy of cancer · 2026Article
- Noncomparative Comparisons: The Paradox of Randomized Noncomparative Trials.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2026Article
- Facts and Hopes in Radioimmunotherapy for Localized Stages of Cancer.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2026Review
- Subsite-specific benefit of induction chemoimmunotherapy in HPV-negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Article
- Sequencing immunotherapy in locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a narrative clinical-translational review.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Targeted Therapies in Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancer: An Overview of Emerging and Repurposed Agents.Cancers · 2025Review
- PLCXD2 expression relates to the immune microenvironment and prognosis of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: a retrospective cohort study.Translational cancer research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeThe optimal timing of pembrolizumab with chemoradiation (CRT) in locally advanced (LA) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is unknown. PATIENTS AND
methodsOur phase II trial randomly assigned patients 1:1 to concurrent pembrolizumab (200 mg once every 3 weeks × 8) starting 1 week before CRT (cisplatin 40 mg/m
resultsTreated patients (41 concurrent and 39 sequential) were 71% oropharynx (53% HPV+), 92.5% stage IV (46% T4, 76% N2), similar by arm. Both arms met the trivariate primary end point, with superior 1-year PFS in the sequential arm (84%
conclusionCRT with sequential pembrolizumab met criteria for further study. Immunosuppressive changes in the TME differed between arms, reflecting the impact of one dose of pembrolizumab in the concurrent arm.
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.