Head & Neck Cancer

Efficacy & Safety

Keytruda Now Publicly Available in Ireland for HNSCC*

KEYTRUDA (Pembrolizumab) is publicly available as monotherapy or in combination with platinum and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) chemotherapy for the first-line treatment of metastatic or unresectable recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in adults whose tumours express PD-L1 with a Combined Positive Score ≥ 1. 1

The approval is based on the Keynote-048 Phase III Randomized Control Trial study and is the first time in more than ten years that a new immunotherapy is available to patients in the first line setting for recurrent or metastatic disease.2

Learn more about the efficacy and safety data of the KN-048 study.

Watch the short 6 minute video below from Prof Jean-Pascal Machiels.

* Reimbursed as of the 20th December 2021 on the Oncology Drugs Management System

  1. HSE Head and Neck Chemotherapy Regimens, Available at https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/list/5/cancer/profinfo/
    chemoprotocols/headandneck/
  2. Keytruda Summary of Product Characteristics, available at www.medicines.ie, accessed Dec 21
  3. Burtness B et al.  Lancet.2019;394(10212):1915–1928