A Phase 2 interventional study of Pembrolizumab and Epacadostat in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Head and Neck Cancer, sponsored by University of Chicago. Terminated at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-01-27.
Sponsored by University of Chicago · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
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Among 16 studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by University of Chicago — 2 open to participants now, 2 under way, none of them phase 3. Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck · University of Chicago.
Among the 16 studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by University of Chicago, this one is the 13th largest by enrollment of the 15 interventional ones that give a count, is one of 3 that started in 2018, is one of 10 in phase 2, and was the 11th registered.
2,019 studies on the registry are indexed under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; 573 are open to participants now.
Browse Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck studies →2 of the 16 studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by University of Chicago are open now, in 1 country. Recruiting first, the newest first:
University of Chicago · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
University of Chicago · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
By country, each count listing its studies:
Of the 435 Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck studies recruiting now, 311 (71%) set no upper age limit and 87 (20%) stop at 75 or younger; 5 take children under 18; 13 take healthy volunteers.
This study: 18 Years and older · all sexes · no healthy volunteers.
The full table on the hub →This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
16 studies; the count open now beside each. This study's row is marked.
A study in two phases is counted once above. Listed by phase, each with its combined phases: Phase 1 5 · Phase 2 11
First in 2001; this study’s year is marked. 3 started in 2018.
By drug class, each counting the studies that test any of its medicines:
This study's enrollment of 2 is below the median of 48 across 1,653 interventional studies indexed under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck.
Median enrollment 35 across the 15 interventional studies, 37 across the 1 observational. Of the 13 that completed or were terminated, 8 (62%) have results posted.
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
University of Chicago is the lead sponsor of 924 studies on the registry; 186 are open to participants now.
Of its 103 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 72 (70%) have results posted.
1 of the studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by University of Chicago that are under way reach primary completion within a year, 0 of them phase 3. Phase 3 first, then by date:
| Study | Primary completion |
|---|---|
| NCT05420948University of ChicagoA Study of Pembrolizumab in Combination With Chemotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer | 2026-12-01 |
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Among the 16 studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by University of Chicago, from their registry updates:
Nothing recorded among them since 2026-09-25.
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Study to determine response rate of the combination of pembrolizumab plus epacadostat in patients with head and neck cancers that have received prior immunotherapy.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
ii. Progressive Disease (PD) on recent scans
* Suboptimal Benefit is defined as (i and ii must both be met): i. Prolonged stable disease ≥5 months OR Suboptimal response (>10% \& \<50% shrinkage per at any evaluation timepoint) ii. Ongoing stable disease on recent scans iii. Last treatment with an anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agent within 6 weeks prior to starting protocol treatment
Exclusion Criteria:
Note: Participants with ≤ Grade 2 neuropathy, any grade hearing loss or tinnitus, or typical side effects from radiotherapy are an exception to this criterion and may qualify for the study.
Note: If subject received major surgery, they must have recovered adequately from the toxicity and/or complications from the intervention prior to starting therapy.
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.
PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.
The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
PD-1, PD-L1 and checkpoint inhibitors
PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4 are proteins that act as brakes on the immune system. Checkpoint inhibitors, such as pembrolizumab or nivolumab, block them so the immune system can attack a cancer.
PD-L1 can also be measured in a tumour sample. Some scores count stained tumour cells only (TPS); others also count certain immune cells (CPS). The study names the score and the minimum it uses.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
RECIST
The standard rules for measuring tumours on CT or MRI scans, to tell whether a cancer is shrinking, stable or growing during treatment.
“Measurable disease per RECIST 1.1” usually means at least one tumour 10 mm or more at its longest on a CT scan, or a lymph node 15 mm or more across its short axis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Biopsy and archival tissue
A biopsy takes a small piece of tissue to examine. “Archival tissue” is a sample already taken, for example at diagnosis, and kept by the hospital.
Whether a stored sample will do depends on when it was taken, how much there is and what the study needs. Ask whether the study accepts your stored sample or needs a new biopsy.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Measurable disease
The amount of disease can be tracked with a defined measurement, so the study can see whether it shrinks or grows. It might be a tumour measured on a scan or, in some blood cancers such as myeloma, a marker measured in blood or urine.
The criteria or the study team say which measurement counts — having no tumour visible on a scan does not by itself rule you out.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECOG performance status
A scale of how much an illness limits everyday activity. For people being assessed to join a study, scores run from 0 (fully active) to 4; lower is more active.
Studies most often ask for 0–1 or 0–2. Your doctor gives the score; the WHO scale uses the same steps. The full scale also has 5, which records death.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Childbearing potential
Able to become pregnant: from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery (removal of the womb, or of both ovaries or both fallopian tubes).
Criteria for people of childbearing potential usually ask for a negative pregnancy test and for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraception
Ways of preventing pregnancy. “Highly effective” methods fail less than 1% of the time a year when used correctly — for example an IUD or an implant.
Criteria usually say which methods count and how long to keep using them after the last dose, sometimes for male participants too. Some studies accept a partner’s vasectomy if it was confirmed successful and that person is the participant’s only sexual partner.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Investigational drug or device
A drug or device being studied in a clinical trial.
It may be new, or already approved and being studied for another use, dose or form. Criteria often leave out people who took part in another study of one within a recent period, commonly 30 days or five half-lives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Corticosteroids (steroids)
Anti-inflammatory medicines such as prednisone, prednisolone and dexamethasone — not the anabolic steroids used for muscle.
Studies differ in what they allow: check which steroid medicines, routes (tablets, injections, creams, inhalers, eye drops) and doses this study accepts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Immunosuppression
A weakened immune system. It can come from an illness, such as HIV or some blood cancers, or from medicines that turn the immune system down, for example after an organ transplant or for an autoimmune disease; steroids at higher doses count.
Read whether the line is about a condition or about medicines, and which medicines and doses it means.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hypersensitivity
An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Excipients
The other ingredients in a medicine besides the active drug, such as fillers, colours or preservatives.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Cancer (malignancy)
Malignancy means cancer. Criteria about another or earlier malignancy ask whether you have had a different cancer, usually within a set number of years.
Some are commonly allowed, such as treated skin cancers other than melanoma and early cancers removed completely — check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Metastases
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Brain metastases
Cancer deposits in the brain from a cancer that started elsewhere in the body (CNS metastases include the spinal cord).
Studies differ: some leave out any brain metastases, some accept ones treated and stable for some weeks. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Autoimmune disease
A condition in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, type 1 diabetes or inflammatory bowel disease.
Immunotherapy studies often leave out active autoimmune disease, and some name exceptions, such as thyroid disease on replacement hormone. Check the exceptions this study lists.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
HIV
The human immunodeficiency virus, which weakens the immune system.
Many studies now accept people whose HIV is controlled on treatment, judged by the viral load and the CD4 count. Check the limits this study sets.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis B tests
Hepatitis B is a virus that infects the liver. These are separate tests: HBsAg positive usually means a current infection (a recent vaccination can briefly cause it too); total anti-HBc (HBcAb) positive means an infection now or in the past; HBV DNA measures how much virus is in the blood.
Some studies accept a past infection if HBV DNA is undetectable, sometimes with antiviral medicine during the study. Check what this study allows.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hepatitis C tests
Hepatitis C is a virus that infects the liver. An HCV antibody test can stay positive after an infection has cleared (and is occasionally positive without one); an HCV RNA test shows whether the virus is there now.
After treatment, hepatitis C counts as cured when HCV RNA is still undetectable 12 weeks or more after the treatment ended. Studies often accept people cured this way.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Live vaccines
Vaccines made with a weakened form of the germ, such as measles–mumps–rubella (MMR), chickenpox and yellow fever. They can be risky when the immune system is weakened. Flu injections are not live; the nasal flu spray is.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ECG (electrocardiogram)
A recording of the heart’s electrical activity, taken with stickers on the chest, arms and legs. It takes a few minutes and does not hurt.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
QT and QTc
On an ECG, the QT interval is the time the heart’s lower chambers take to activate electrically and recover in each beat. QTc is that time adjusted for heart rate (QTcF by Fridericia’s formula, QTcB by Bazett’s). Some medicines lengthen it, and a long QTc can raise the risk of a dangerous heart rhythm.
The study may name a correction formula and a limit in milliseconds, often around 450–480.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
NYHA class (heart failure)
The New York Heart Association’s four classes of how much heart failure limits physical activity.
Studies set their own limit — many outside heart failure leave out class III–IV, while heart failure studies may ask for a particular class. Check the class this study names.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants that have benefited from prior treatment with immunotherapy. Defined as response to prior treatment and/or stable disease lasting at least 5 months and disease worsening seen on most recent imaging. Participants will receive Pembrolizumab and Epacadostat.
Drug: Pembrolizumab · Drug: Epacadostat
Participants that have not benefited from prior treatment with immunotherapy. Defined as stable disease lasting at least 5 months or suboptimal response (11-49% shrinkage of tumors). Disease continues to be stable on most recent imaging. Participants will receive Pembrolizumab and Epacadostat.
Drug: Pembrolizumab · Drug: Epacadostat
Pembrolizumab (200mg/kg) given by intravenous infusion every 3 weeks.
Also known as: Keytruda, MK3476
Epacadostat (100mg) taken by mouth twice a day.
Also known as: INCB024360
Response Rate
Rate of clinical disease response (tumor shrinkage) as seen on imaging.
Time frame: up to 18 months
Progression Free Survival
Number of patients that have not had disease worsening across both study groups.
Time frame: 1 year
Overall Survival
Number of patients surviving across both study groups.
Time frame: 1 year
Side Effects
Number of patients with side effect. Summary of side effects by type is provided in adverse events section below.
Time frame: 6 months
| Milestone | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| Started | 2 |
| Completed | 2 |
| Not completed | 0 |
Rate of clinical disease response (tumor shrinkage) as seen on imaging.
| Participants | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| Response Rate | 0 |
Number of patients that have not had disease worsening across both study groups.
No measurements were reported for this outcome.
Number of patients surviving across both study groups.
No measurements were reported for this outcome.
Number of patients with side effect. Summary of side effects by type is provided in adverse events section below.
| Participants | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| Side Effects | 2 |
Collected over 8 months. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.
| Group | Deaths | Serious | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group | 0/2 (0%) | 0/2 (0%) | 2/2 (100%) |
| Event | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| Chest wall painMusculoskeletal and connective tissue disorders | 2/2 |
| CoughRespiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders | 1/2 |
| ConstipationGastrointestinal disorders | 1/2 |
| Neutrophil count decreasedInvestigations | 1/2 |
| Skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders - Other, specifySkin and subcutaneous tissue disorders | 1/2 |
| GastGastrointestinal disorders - Other, specifyrointestinal disorders - Other, specifyGastrointestinal disorders | 1/2 |
| Age, Continuous(years) | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| Mean | 55.5 (52 to 59) |
| Sex: Female, Male(Participants) | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| Female | 1 |
| Male | 1 |
| Race (NIH/OMB)(Participants) | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 0 |
| Asian | 0 |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0 |
| Black or African American | 0 |
| White | 2 |
| More than one race | 0 |
| Unknown or Not Reported | 0 |
| Region of Enrollment(participants) | Acquired Resistance or Suboptimal Benefit Group |
|---|---|
| United States | 2 |
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: Undecided
Ran from Mar 2018 to primary completion in Dec 2018, 8 months.
Results were first posted in Jan 2020, 1 year 1 month after primary completion.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is terminated, as verified in Jan 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
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Studies of the drug tested here: Epacadostat
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck →