Pembrolizumab for recurrent/metastatic head and neck cancer: equally promising for Asian patients?

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is the fifth most common cancer worldwide, with more than half a million new cases every year (1). Over half of these originate from the Asia Pacific region, where HNSCC accounts for a much greater proportion of newly diagnosed cancers (2). While the annual incidence of HNSCC in North America and Europe ranges from 5–10% of new cancer cases, this figure may be as high as 37.5% in some areas of Asia (3).