A Phase 3 interventional study of Biospecimen Collection and Cetuximab in Metastatic Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Metastatic Hypopharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Metastatic Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma, sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI). Recruiting at 202 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-06.
Sponsored by National Cancer Institute (NCI) · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment
This phase III trial compares the effect of adding cetuximab to pembrolizumab versus pembrolizumab alone in treating patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) that has come back after a period of improvement (recurrent) and/or that has spread from where it first started (primary site) to other places in the body (metastatic). Cetuximab is in a class of medications called monoclonal antibodies. It binds to a protein called EGFR, which is found on some types of tumor cells. This may help keep tumor cells from growing. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the tumor, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Giving cetuximab and pembrolizumab together may be more effective at treating patients with recurrent and/or metastatic HNSCC than pembrolizumab alone.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:
I. To assess whether the combination of cetuximab and pembrolizumab (arm 2) compared to pembrolizumab alone (arm 1) results in improved overall survival (OS) in subjects with platinum refractory HNSCC.
SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:
I. To compare pembrolizumab + cetuximab (arm 2) versus (vs.) pembrolizumab alone (arm 1) with respect to objective response rate per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) 1.1.
II. To compare pembrolizumab + cetuximab (arm 2) vs. pembrolizumab alone (arm 1) with respect to progression free survival (PFS) per RECIST 1.1.
III. To evaluate pembrolizumab + cetuximab (arm 2) vs. pembrolizumab alone (arm 1) with respect to duration of response (DOR) per RECIST 1.1.
IV. To assess the safety and tolerability of pembrolizumab + cetuximab (arm 2) vs. pembrolizumab alone (arm 1).
V. To assess the patient-reported toxicity using Patient Reported Outcomes version of Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE) of pembrolizumab + cetuximab (arm 2) vs. pembrolizumab alone (arm 1).
EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:
I. To identify specific mutational changes that may be indicative of clinical response to pembrolizumab + cetuximab and pembrolizumab alone.
II. To evaluate circulating tumor-derived deoxyribonucleic acid (ctDNA) kinetics over the course of treatment in response to pembrolizumab + cetuximab and pembrolizumab alone.
OUTLINE: Patients are randomized to 1 of 2 arms.
ARM 1: Patients receive pembrolizumab intravenously (IV) over 30 minutes on day 1 of each cycle. Cycles repeat every 42 days for up to 18 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET)/CT or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) throughout the trial and optionally undergo blood sample collection on study and at disease progression or end of treatment.
ARM 2: Patients receive cetuximab IV over 120 minutes on day -14 prior to cycle 1 and then on days 1, 15 and 29 of each cycle and pembrolizumab IV over 30 minutes on day 1 of each cycle. Cycles repeat every 42 days for up to 18 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo CT, PET/CT or MRI throughout the trial and optionally undergo blood sample collection on study and at disease progression or end of treatment.
After completion of study treatment, patients are followed up within 4 weeks and then every 3 and/or 6 months for up to 5 years.
2,018 studies on the registry are indexed under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; 573 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 158 is above the median of 48 across 1,653 interventional studies indexed under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck.
Browse Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck studies →National Cancer Institute (NCI) is the lead sponsor of 3,556 studies on the registry; 336 are open to participants now.
Of its 411 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 373 (91%) have results posted.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Inclusion Criteria:
Primary tumor location of oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, or hypopharynx.
Patient with oropharyngeal cancer only must have negative results from testing of human papillomavirus (HPV) status defined as p16 immunohistochemistry (IHC) and/or HPV in situ hybridization (ISH).
Not pregnant and not nursing, because this study involves an agent that has known genotoxic, mutagenic, and teratogenic effects.
For treated/stable : Patients with treated brain metastases are eligible if follow-up brain imaging after central nervous system (CNS)-directed therapy shows no evidence of progression.
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.
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
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.
Relapsed: the illness came back after treatment had worked. Refractory: it did not respond to treatment, or stopped responding while still on it.
Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
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.
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 reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
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.
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.
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 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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.
Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.
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.
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.
Histologically or cytologically confirmed
The diagnosis was confirmed by looking at a sample under a microscope: tissue from a biopsy or surgery (histology), or cells from a fluid or needle sample (cytology).
Your pathology report is the document that shows this.
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.
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.
Adjuvant and neoadjuvant
Neoadjuvant treatment is given before the main treatment (usually surgery), often to shrink a tumour. Adjuvant treatment is given after it, to lower the chance of the cancer coming back.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
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.
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.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Leptomeningeal disease
Cancer that has spread to the leptomeninges, the thin layers covering the brain and spinal cord, and the fluid between them. It is not the same as brain metastases.
Criteria often treat it separately, and many studies leave it out even where treated brain metastases are allowed.
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.
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.
Patients receive pembrolizumab IV over 30 minutes on day 1 of each cycle. Cycles repeat every 42 days for up to 18 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo CT, PET/CT or MRI throughout the trial and optionally undergo blood sample collection on study and at disease progression or end of treatment.
Procedure: Biospecimen Collection · Procedure: Computed Tomography · Procedure: Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Biological: Pembrolizumab · Procedure: Positron Emission Tomography
Patients receive cetuximab IV over 120 minutes on day -14 prior to cycle 1 and then on days 1, 15 and 29 of each cycle and pembrolizumab IV over 30 minutes on day 1 of each cycle. Cycles repeat every 42 days for up to 18 cycles in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients also undergo CT, PET/CT or MRI throughout the trial and optionally undergo blood sample collection on study and at disease progression or end of treatment.
Procedure: Biospecimen Collection · Biological: Cetuximab · Procedure: Computed Tomography · Procedure: Magnetic Resonance Imaging · Biological: Pembrolizumab · Procedure: Positron Emission Tomography
Undergo blood sample collection
Also known as: Biological Sample Collection, Biospecimen Collected, Sample Collection, Specimen Collection
Given IV
Also known as: C 225, C-225, C225, Cetuxa, Cetuximab Biosimilar CDP-1, Cetuximab Biosimilar CMAB009, Cetuximab Biosimilar KL 140, Cetuximab-cetu, Chimeric Anti-EGFR Monoclonal Antibody, Chimeric MoAb C225, Chimeric Monoclonal Antibody C225, ENZ 124, ENZ-124, ENZ124, Erbitux, IMC-C225
Undergo CT or PET/CT
Also known as: CAT, CAT Scan, Computed Axial Tomography, Computerized Axial Tomography, Computerized axial tomography (procedure), Computerized Tomography, Computerized Tomography (CT) scan, CT, CT Scan, Diagnostic CAT Scan, Diagnostic CAT Scan Service Type, tomography
Undergo MRI
Also known as: Magnetic Resonance, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic resonance imaging (procedure), Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan, Medical Imaging, Magnetic Resonance / Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, MR, MR Imaging, MRI, MRI Scan, MRIs, NMR Imaging, NMRI, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging, sMRI, Structural MRI
Given IV
Also known as: BCD-201, GME 751, GME751, Keytruda, Lambrolizumab, MK 3475, MK-3475, MK3475, Pembrolizumab Biosimilar BCD-201, Pembrolizumab Biosimilar GME751, Pembrolizumab Biosimilar QL2107, Pembrolizumab Biosimilar RPH-075, Pembrolizumab Biosimilar SB27, QL2107, RPH 075, RPH-075, RPH075, SB 27, SB-27, SB27, SCH 900475, SCH-900475, SCH900475
Undergo PET/CT
Also known as: Medical Imaging, Positron Emission Tomography, PET, PET Scan, Positron emission tomography (procedure), Positron Emission Tomography Scan, Positron-Emission Tomography, PT
Overall survival (OS)
Will be estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Will be based on the stratified log-rank test that will compare the distributions across the treatment arms. Univariable and multivariable Cox models stratified by the stratification factors used in the randomization will be assessed as well, where the multivariable Cox model will also adjust for other key baseline factors of interest. Hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals, along with likelihood ratio p-values will be reported from these Cox models. Forest plots will be used to illustrate the comparisons between the arms within subgroups defined by stratification factors and key baseline characteristics.
Time frame: Time from randomization to death from any cause, assessed up to 5 years
Confirmed response rate
Will be assessed per Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) 1.1 criteria if patients have a partial or complete response for 2 consecutive evaluations at least 4 weeks apart, using local review only. The proportion of patients with a confirmed response will be calculated and compared between the 2 arms using a Chi-square or Fisher's Exact test.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Duration of response
Will be defined for all evaluable patients who have achieved an objective response. Will be assessed per RECIST 1.1 criteria. Will be estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method.
Time frame: From the date at which the patient's earliest best objective status is first noted to be either a complete response or partial response to the earliest date progression is documented, assessed up to 5 years
Progression free survival
Disease progression will be assessed per RECIST 1.1 criteria. Will be compared between the 2 arms using the Kaplan-Meier method, where the log-rank test will be used to calculate the p-value.
Time frame: Time from randomization to the first of either disease progression or death from any cause, assessed up to 5 years
Incidence of adverse events
Will be summarized using Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 5.0. The frequency and percentage of grade 3+ adverse events will be compared between the 2 treatment arms. Comparisons between arms will be made by using either the Chi-square or Fisher's Exact test.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Patient-reported toxicity
Will be assessed using Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the CTCAE. The frequency and proportion of patients with a maximum post-baseline score greater than 0 will be compared across arms using a Chi-square or Fisher's exact test with a nominal significance level of alpha = 0.10. Similarly, the frequency and proportion of patients with a maximum post-baseline score greater than or equal to 3 will be compared across arms using a Chi-square or Fisher's exact test with a nominal significance level of alpha = 0.10. Patients' maximum baseline-adjusted scores will be calculated using the method described by Dueck et al.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Estimates of median OS by sex
Estimates of treatment effects (median OS) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals will be provided by sex.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Estimates of median OS by race
Estimates of treatment effects (median OS) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals will be provided by race.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
Estimates of median OS by ethnicity
Estimates of treatment effects (median OS) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals will be provided by ethnicity.
Time frame: Up to 5 years
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Plan to share: Yes — NCI is committed to sharing data in accordance with NIH policy. For more details on how clinical trial data is shared, access the link to the NIH data sharing policy page.
Data sharing details ↗ · grants.nih.gov
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Started Mar 2025 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2032, 92 months after the start.
Of 51 non-industry phase 3 interventional studies under Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck, half reached primary completion within 95 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 67 and three quarters within 121. This study's planned 92 months is close to that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 78 studies reached it within 76 months; a quarter within 38 and three quarters within 117.
Since we started tracking on Sep 25, 2026, the dates moved once, on Oct 19, 2026: primary completion Nov 2029 → Dec 2032 and completion Nov 2029 → Dec 2032.
Earlier changes are on the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
No contact was published for this record. The registry link below has the sponsor’s details.
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: Cetuximab
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