A Phase 2 interventional study of Cisplatin and Pembrolizumab in Vulvar Cancer and Vulvar Squamous Cell Carcinoma, sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital. Active, not recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to female participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-05-05.
Sponsored by Massachusetts General Hospital · Phase 2, Interventional, and Treatment
This research is being done to see how well the combination of a standard of care drug, investigational drug, and radiation therapy work against unresectable vulvar squamous cell carcinoma.
This research study involves the following:
This is a single-arm phase 2 clinical trial involving women with unresectable, incompletely resected, recurrent, or metastatic vulva squamous cell carcinoma. This study combines cisplatin, pembrolizumab, and radiation therapy to see if this combination further increases participants' immune system's efficiency in killing their tumor, and if the combination decreases the chances of participants' cancer coming back.
The research study procedures include screening for eligibility and study treatment including evaluations and follow up visits.
This research study involves the following:
Participants will receive study treatment for up to 36 weeks and will be followed for up to 3 years.
It is expected that about 24 people will take part in this research study.
Phase II clinical trials test the safety and effectiveness of an investigational drug to learn whether the drug works in treating a specific disease. "Investigational" means that the drug is being studied. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved cisplatin as a treatment option for vulva squamous cell carcinoma. The FDA has not approved pembrolizumab for vulva squamous cell carcinoma, but it has been approved for other uses. Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug and will be given to participants per standard of care.
Radiation therapy will be given to you per standard of care. Pembrolizumab is a drug that may target participants immune systems to increase its efficiency in targeting and killing illnesses and diseases, such as unresectable vulvar squamous cell carcinoma.
210 studies on the registry are indexed under Vulvar Neoplasms; 71 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 24 is below the median of 55 across 151 interventional studies indexed under Vulvar Neoplasms.
Browse Vulvar Neoplasms studies →Massachusetts General Hospital is the lead sponsor of 2,536 studies on the registry; 446 are open to participants now.
Of its 214 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 161 (75%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Time from prior therapy:
Participants must have adequate organ and marrow function as defined below (Table 1):
Table 1: Adequate Organ Function Laboratory Values
Hematological
Renal
Hepatic
Coagulation
Participant must be female, and is eligible to participate if she is not pregnant (see Appendix B), not breastfeeding, and at least one of the following conditions applies:
Exclusion Criteria:
Treatment period is 36 weeks with 21 day study cycles. Participants will receive cisplatin at a predetermined dose 1x weekly, pembrolizumab at a predetermined dose every 3 weeks, concurrently with daily radiation therapy from week 1 up to week 8. First 3 participants on the study, may skip 1 or 2 pembrolizumab dosages while receiving radiation therapy. Following completion of daily radiation therapy with 1x weekly cisplatin and 1x every 3 weeks pembrolizumab, participants will continue at a pre-determined maintenance dose of pembrolizumab 1x every 3 weeks for a total of 12 cycles or 36 weeks.
Drug: Cisplatin · Drug: Pembrolizumab · Radiation: Radiation Therapy
Participants will be given Cisplatin by intravenous infusion at a predetermined dose 1x weekly up to 8 weeks.
Also known as: Platinol, Platinol-AQ, CDDP
Participants will be given Pembrolizumab by intravenous infusion at a predetermined dose 1x every 3 weeks up to 36 weeks.
Also known as: Keytruda
Standard of care radiation therapy 1x daily up to 8 weeks.
Overall response rate (ORR)
To determine the Overall response rate (ORR) in patients undergoing combination therapy with pembrolizumab and cisplatin-sensitized external beam radiation therapy by RECIST 1.1 criteria. This sample size calculation is based on an ORR of greater than or equal to 60%. For recurrent metastatic disease, there are is no standard of care.The ORR estimation is informed by data showing an ORR of 40% in patients with advanced or recurrent metastatic vulvar cancer treated with platinum-based combination therapy. Single agent chemotherapy has an ORR of about 12% (5). Patients with primary disease who are not candidates for upfront surgery have a reported response rates from 55% to 64%.
Time frame: Up to 36 weeks
Recurrence Free Survival (RFS)-6 months
To determine the 6-month Recurrence Free Survival (RFS) in patients with locally advanced, unresectable, or recurrent metastatic vulvar cancer treated with concurrent cisplatin-sensitized radiation therapy and pembrolizumab. A point estimate with exact 95% CI and Kaplan-Meier estimate will be used for the RFS distribution.
Time frame: 6 months
Plan to share: Yes — The Dana-Farber / Harvard Cancer Center encourages and supports the responsible and ethical sharing of data from clinical trials. De-identified participant data from the final research dataset used in the published manuscript may only be shared under the terms of a Data Use Agreement. Requests may be directed to: \[contact information for Sponsor Investigator or designee\]. The protocol and statistical analysis plan will be made available on Clinical trials.gov only as required by federal regulation or as a condition of awards and agreements supporting the research.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Sap, Icf
This study is active, not recruiting, as verified in Apr 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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Massachusetts General Hospital