xRead - An Update on Immunotherapy in Head and Neck Cancer (November 2025)

Adjuvant Cemiplimab in High-Risk Cutaneous SCC

A Freedom from Locoregional Recurrence

100

Cemiplimab (9 events)

90

80

70

Placebo (40 events)

60

50

40

30

Percentage of Patients 20

Hazard ratio for locoregional recurrence, 0.20 (95% CI, 0.09–0.40)

10 0

0

4

8

12

16

20

24

28

32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60

Month

Cemiplimab Placebo No. at Risk

209 206

174 163

160 132

135 97

119 84

107 70

85 54

67 43

48 37

33 27

27 24

22 18

9 10

6 4

1 2

0 0

B Freedom from Distant Recurrence

100

Cemiplimab (10 events)

90

80

70

Placebo (26 events)

60

50

40

30

Percentage of Patients 20

Hazard ratio for distant recurrence, 0.35 (95% CI, 0.17–0.72)

10 0

0

4

8

12

16

20

24

28

32

36

40

44

48

52

56

60

Month

Cemiplimab Placebo No. at Risk

209 206

173 166

158 137

133 99

116 84

104 70

85 54

66 42

48 36

33 27

27 24

22 18

9 10

6 4

1 2

0 0

Figure 3. Freedom from Locoregional Recurrence and Freedom from Distant Recurrence. Analyses of locoregional recurrence (Panel A) and distant recurrence (Panel B) were based on the Kaplan–Meier method, with stratification according to high-risk tumor (head and neck vs. non–head and neck) and geographic region (North America vs. Australia or New Zealand vs. the rest of the world). Hazard ratios were based on strati fied proportional-hazards models. Tick marks indicate censored data.

vant therapy or to wait until disease recurrence occurs before the initiation of immunotherapy; the circumstances and preferences of the patient should be taken into consideration. Because anti– PD-1 therapy provides durable responses in less than 50% of patients in the context of advanced cutaneous squamous-cell carcinoma, 8,9,17,18 the ability of adjuvant cemiplimab to reduce the risk of recurrence of cutaneous squamous-cell carci

noma is clinically meaningful for patients at high risk for recurrence. A limitation of the C-POST trial is that it was not designed to formally investigate differences in efficacy and safety between the two dose regi mens in the trial. However, this trial provides randomized data regarding the standard admin istration regimen (every 3 weeks only) and a regi men with an extended administration interval

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