Clinical Medicine Insights: Oncology · Published 2026-07-01 · DOI 10.1177/11795549261468467
Phuong Thi Bich Nguyen, Hau Xuan Nguyen, Gia Hoang Nguyen, Tai Nguyen Van, Kien Do Hung
Background This present study aimed to evaluate the efficacy, safety, and prognostic factors of pembrolizumab in Vietnamese patients with platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC). Methods We performed a multicenter retrospective cohort study of 62 patients with platinum-refractory recurrent or metastatic HNSCC who received pembrolizumab monotherapy (200 mg every 3 weeks) from January 2020 to June 2024 at Vietnam National Cancer Hospital – K Hospital and Hanoi Oncology Hospital. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS); secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), overall response rate (ORR) per RECIST v1.1, and safety per CTCAE v5.0. Survival was assessed using Kaplan-Meier methods, and prognostic factors were evaluated with multivariable Cox regression. Results Among 62 patients (85.5% male, mean age 58.9±9.7 years), the ORR and disease control rate were 25.8% and 51.6%, respectively. Median PFS was 4.3 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 2.9-5.7), and median OS was 7.5 months (95% CI 5.9-9.1). Programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) combined positive score (CPS) ≥20 was associated with improved PFS (hazard ratio [HR] 0.452, 95% CI, 0.245-0.832, P=0.005) and OS (HR 0.373, 95% CI 0.157-0.884, P=0.025). Pembrolizumab monotherapy was well-tolerated with grade 3-4 adverse events in 3.2% of patients and lack of treatment-related deaths. Conclusions This real-world study confirms that pembrolizumab monotherapy provides clinically meaningful efficacy and favorable safety in later-line Vietnamese R/M HNSCC patients, with enhanced benefit in PD-L1 CPS≥20, supporting its role in resource-limited settings.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Nguyen, P., Nguyen, H., Nguyen, G., et al. (2026). 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. https://doi.org/10.1177/11795549261468467