A Phase 2 interventional study of Cabozantinib and Pembrolizumab in Metastatic Head and Neck Carcinoma, Paranasal Sinus Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Recurrent Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, sponsored by Emory University. Active, not recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-01-23.
Sponsored by Emory University · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
Help build ClinicalTrials.gg — short surveys, remote interviews or testing, in your language. Take part →
Among 62 studies testing pembrolizumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck — 17 open to participants now, 31 under way, 2 of them phase 3. pembrolizumab · Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck.
Among the 62 studies testing pembrolizumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck, this one is the 40th largest by enrollment, is one of 4 that started in 2018, is one of 43 in phase 2, reaches primary completion later than 0 of the 30 other live ones, and was the 21st 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 →17 of the 62 studies testing pembrolizumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck are open now, in 5 countries. Recruiting first, the newest first:
Brown University · Sites in United States
Ages 65+
Emory University · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
National University Hospital, Singapore · Sites in Singapore
Ages 21–99
University of Leipzig · Sites in Germany
Ages 18–70
University of California, Davis · Sites in United States
Ages 18+
By country, each count listing its studies:
pembrolizumab: first FDA approval 2014 (KEYTRUDA), first EMA approval 2015. What it is approved for, and how studies give it, is on its page →
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.
On this site’s reading of the record, pembrolizumab is the treatment under test here. Read study by study →
62 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 13 · Phase 2 46 · Phase 3 5 · Phase 4 1
First in 2014; this study’s year is marked. 4 started in 2018.
By drug class, each counting the studies that test any of its medicines:
This study's enrollment of 36 is below the median of 48 across 1,653 interventional studies indexed under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck.
Median enrollment 52 across the 62 interventional studies. Of the 28 that completed or were terminated, 18 (64%) have results posted.
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
11 of 62 have an industry lead sponsor. The 10 most frequent:
Emory University is the lead sponsor of 1,405 studies on the registry; 223 are open to participants now.
Of its 238 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 178 (75%) have results posted.
12 studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by Emory University: 4 open now, 7 under way, none of them phase 3. Of 4 finished, 3 (75%) have results posted.
Among the 12 studies in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck by Emory University, this one is the 4th largest by enrollment, is one of 3 that started in 2018, is one of 4 in phase 2, and was the 4th registered.
Emory University’s Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck studies by the year they started, since 2006.
9 of the studies testing pembrolizumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck that are under way reach primary completion within a year, 2 of them phase 3. Phase 3 first, then by date:
| Study | Primary completion |
|---|---|
| NCT06998069Phase 3Brown UniversityHead and Neck Cancer Study Project in the Geriatric Population | 2026-12-01 |
| NCT06102395Phase 3Beijing Tongren HospitalEvaluating the Efficacy and Safety of Pembrolizumab Plus Standard Chemotherapy in the Neoadjuvant Treatment of Local Advanced (LA) HNSCC | 2027-04-30 |
| NCT06580054University of Michigan Rogel Cancer CenterPembrolizumab for the Treatment of Locally Advanced and/or Recurrent Orbital or Periocular Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma | 2026-12 |
| NCT06211335University of California, DavisLosartan, Pembrolizumab and Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy for the Treatment of Patients With Locally Recurrent, Refractory or Oligometastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma | 2026-12 |
| NCT04754321Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer CenterCombining Immunotherapy Salvage Surgery & IORT Tx Persistent/Recurrent Head & Neck Cancer | 2026-12-31 |
Add all 9 to your calendar (.ics) → With an account.
Among the 62 studies testing pembrolizumab in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck, from their registry updates:
Among Emory University’s 12 in Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck:
This tab as a report to print or save as PDF → With an account.
This phase II trial studies how well pembrolizumab and cabozantinib in treating patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer that has come back or spread to other places in the body and cannot be removed by surgery. Monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Cabozantinib may stop the growth of tumor cells by blocking some of the pathways needed for cell growth. Giving pembrolizumab and cabozantinib may improve the chances of tumor response in patients with head and neck squamous cell cancer.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
To estimate the overall response rate (ORR) of patients with recurrent/metastatic (RM) squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) who receive the combination of pembrolizumab and cabozantinib.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
OUTLINE:
Patients receive pembrolizumab intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on day 1 and cabozantinib orally (PO) once daily (QD) on days 1-21. Cycles repeat every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up to 2 years.
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.
Exclusion Criteria:
Concomitant anticoagulation at therapeutic doses with oral anticoagulants (eg, warfarin, direct thrombin and factor Xa inhibitors) or inhibitors (eg, clopidogrel)
The subject has experienced any of the following:
The subject has uncontrolled, significant intercurrent or recent illness including, but not limited to, the following conditions:
Cardiovascular disorders including:
Any of the following within 6 months before the first dose of study treatment:
GI disorders particularly those associated with a high risk of perforation or fistula formation including:
Abdominal fistula, GI perforation, bowel obstruction, intra-abdominal abscess within 6 months before randomization
Corrected QT interval by Fridericia's formula (QTcF) > 500 msec within 1 month before the first dose of study treatment
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.
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Cancer that has spread from where it began to other parts of the body. “Metastatic” cancer is cancer that has spread this way.
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.
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.
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
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.
The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
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.
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.
Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.
Criteria about it usually ask for contraception during the study and for a time after it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.
Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.
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.
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.
A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.
Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.
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.
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.
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.
Relapsed and refractory
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
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.
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.
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.
Life expectancy
The study doctor’s estimate of how long someone is likely to live. Criteria use it so that people can stay in the study long enough for it to answer its question.
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.
CTCAE grade
The US National Cancer Institute’s scale of how severe an adverse event is — any unwanted medical event during a study, such as a symptom, an illness or an abnormal test result, whether or not a treatment caused it. Whether it did is judged separately.
“Side effects of earlier treatment resolved to grade 1 or less” means they have settled to mild or gone.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Absolute neutrophil count (ANC)
The number of neutrophils, white blood cells that help fight infection, in a given amount of blood. Too few raises the risk of infection.
It is a count, not a percentage of the white cells. Limits are written in units that mean the same: ≥ 1.5 × 10⁹/L is ≥ 1,500 per mm³ (µL). Each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Platelets
Blood cells that help blood clot. Too few raises the risk of bleeding and bruising. A usual adult range is about 150–400 × 10⁹/L (150,000–400,000 per µL); each lab has its own reference range.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Hemoglobin (Hb)
The protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. A low level is anaemia, which can cause tiredness and breathlessness. Measured in g/dL or g/L (9 g/dL is 90 g/L).
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Bilirubin
A yellow substance made when red blood cells are broken down, which the liver clears. A high level can mean a problem with the liver or the bile ducts.
Criteria often allow more for people with Gilbert’s syndrome, a harmless inherited condition that raises bilirubin.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ULN (upper limit of normal)
The top of the normal range for a blood test, as set by the laboratory that runs it. Each lab prints its own range next to your result.
“≤ 2.5 × ULN” means the result can be up to two and a half times that top value.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Creatinine clearance (CrCl)
How quickly the kidneys clear creatinine, a waste product, from the blood. A study may estimate it from a blood test with age, weight and sex (often by the Cockcroft–Gault formula), or measure it using blood and urine collected over a set time. Given in mL/min; higher is better.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
ALT and AST (liver enzymes)
Two enzymes measured in a routine blood test of the liver. Higher levels can mean the liver is under strain or damaged. SGPT and SGOT are older names for ALT and AST.
Criteria usually give a limit as a multiple of the upper limit of normal (ULN), often higher when cancer has spread to the liver.
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.
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.
Reproductive potential
Able to have children. For women this usually means from the first period until menopause, unless permanently unable to through surgery; for men, unless permanently sterile. Read who the line is about — participants, women, men, or their partners.
Criteria about it usually ask 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
INR, PT and aPTT (clotting tests)
Blood tests of how long blood takes to clot. The INR is the prothrombin time (PT) put on a common scale; about 1 is usual for someone not taking a blood thinner.
Criteria often make an exception for people on a blood thinner such as warfarin, whose INR is raised on purpose.
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.
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.
TIA (transient ischaemic attack)
A “mini-stroke”: temporary stroke-like symptoms caused by reduced blood flow to part of the brain, spinal cord or eye, without signs of a new stroke on a scan.
Stroke symptoms need emergency care at once, even if they go away.
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.
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.
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.
Patients receive pembrolizumab IV over 30 minutes on day 1 and cabozantinib PO QD on days 1-21. Cycles repeat every 3 weeks in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity.
Drug: Cabozantinib · Biological: Pembrolizumab
Given PO
Also known as: Cabometyx, Cometriq
Given IV
Also known as: Keytruda, Lambrolizumab, MK-3475, SCH 900475
Overall Response Rate (ORR)
Will assess the proportion of subjects with partial response or complete response as defined by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 response criteria. ORR will be calculated with 95% confidence interval by binomial distribution. The ability of biomarkers to predict ORR will be estimated by chi-square test and/or logistic regression model.
Time frame: Up to 2 years after treatment start
Progression Free Survival (PFS)
The median PFS will be estimated by Kaplan-Meier method along with 95% confidence interval. The biomarker association with PFS will be assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and Cox model.
Time frame: Duration from date of treatment start to the date of objectively documented progression or death due to any cause, whichever status is recorded first, assessed up to 2 years
| Milestone | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| Started | 36 |
| Completed | 11 |
| Not completed | 25 |
| Withdrew: Adverse event | 5 |
| Withdrew: Progressive disease | 16 |
| Withdrew: Death | 1 |
| Withdrew: Alternate therapy | 1 |
| Withdrew: Withdrawal by subject | 2 |
Will assess the proportion of subjects with partial response or complete response as defined by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors version 1.1 response criteria. ORR will be calculated with 95% confidence interval by binomial distribution. The ability of biomarkers to predict ORR will be estimated by chi-square test and/or logistic regression model.
| percentage of participants | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| Overall Response Rate (ORR) | 52 |
The median PFS will be estimated by Kaplan-Meier method along with 95% confidence interval. The biomarker association with PFS will be assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method, log-rank test, and Cox model.
| percentage of participants | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| Progression Free Survival (PFS) | 54 (31.5 to 72) |
Collected over 2 years. Non-serious events are listed at a 0% frequency threshold.
| Group | Deaths | Serious | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) | 7/36 (19.4%) | 18/36 (50%) | 24/36 (66.7%) |
| Event | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| DeathGeneral disorders | 7/36 |
| Hospitalization-hyponatremiaInvestigations | 2/36 |
| Hospiltaization- acute respiratory failureRespiratory, thoracic and mediastinal disorders | 2/36 |
| Hospitalization- AspirationGastrointestinal disorders | 2/36 |
| Hospitalization-TransanitisGastrointestinal disorders | 1/36 |
| Hospitalization- Low blood pressureVascular disorders | 1/36 |
| Hospitalization-drug induced hepatitisGastrointestinal disorders | 1/36 |
| Hospitalization- Atrial FibrillationCardiac disorders | 1/36 |
| Hospitalization-hypotensionVascular disorders | 1/36 |
| Hospitalization- Ulcer in right oropharynxGastrointestinal disorders | 1/36 |
| Event | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| FatigueGeneral disorders | 16/36 |
| DiarrheaGastrointestinal disorders | 13/36 |
| HypothyroidismEndocrine disorders | 12/36 |
| HypertensionVascular disorders | 12/36 |
| ConstipationGastrointestinal disorders | 11/36 |
| Dry MouthGastrointestinal disorders | 10/36 |
| AnorexiaMetabolism and nutrition disorders | 10/36 |
| HeadacheNervous system disorders | 10/36 |
| HyponatremiaMetabolism and nutrition disorders | 10/36 |
| DysphagiaGastrointestinal disorders | 10/36 |
| Age, Categorical(Participants) | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| <=18 years | 0 |
| Between 18 and 65 years | 23 |
| >=65 years | 13 |
| Sex: Female, Male(Participants) | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| Female | 6 |
| Male | 30 |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB)(Participants) | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| Hispanic or Latino | 1 |
| Not Hispanic or Latino | 34 |
| Unknown or Not Reported | 1 |
| Race (NIH/OMB)(Participants) | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| American Indian or Alaska Native | 0 |
| Asian | 5 |
| Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0 |
| Black or African American | 4 |
| White | 27 |
| More than one race | 0 |
| Unknown or Not Reported | 0 |
| Region of Enrollment(Participants) | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| United States | 36 |
| Smoking Status(Participants) | Treatment (Pembrolizumab, Cabozantinib) |
|---|---|
| Current Smoker | 9 |
| Former Smoker | 8 |
| Never Smoker | 19 |
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Ran from Sep 2018 to primary completion in May 2022, 43 months.
Results were first posted in Dec 2024, 2 years 7 months after primary completion.
Of 298 non-industry phase 2 interventional studies under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck, half reached primary completion within 56 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 37 and three quarters within 85. This study's 43 months is below that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 366 studies reached it within 53 months; a quarter within 35 and three quarters within 82.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Jan 2026. 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.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Studies of the drugs tested here: Cabozantinib · Pembrolizumab
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck →