Health-Related Quality of Life of Patients with Recurrent or Metastatic Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma Treated with Pembrolizumab in KEYNOTE-629

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the second most common type of non-melanoma skin cancer. cSCC is usually caused by cumulative exposure to sunlight and often occurs in exposed parts of the body such as the head and neck. cSCC is most often seen in older people. If cSCC is detected early, it can be removed by surgery; however, if left untreated, the cancer can spread throughout the body and cause death. The disease itself and its treatment can be painful, cause scarring, or change the patient’s physical appearance. Hence, people with cSCC often have poor quality of life. It is therefore important to develop new drugs to help patients with cSCC live longer without worsening their quality of life. The phase 2 KEYNOTE-629 study investigated how well the drug pembrolizumab treated cSCC and whether it was safe. KEYNOTE-629 included patients who were mostly older and had advanced cSCC. The results showed that pembrolizumab was effective and safe. Here, we investigated how pembrolizumab affected the quality of life of these patients. To do this, we asked patients to answer questionnaires on important aspects of their experience, such as their general health status, physical functioning, emotional wellbeing, and symptoms. We found that patients who were treated with pembrolizumab had stable quality of life during treatment. Furthermore, patients whose cancer responded well to pembrolizumab were more likely to have an improved quality of life. These results support the use of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced cSCC.