New Cancer Drug Helps Patients Live Twice as Long

Laura Marston, 45, from Derbyshire, was one of the patients who benefited from the new treatment.

By DTD- On Jun 9, 2025

ISLAMABAD: A new immunotherapy drug has doubled the time patients with advanced head and neck cancer remain cancer-free, according to results from a major international clinical trial.

The study, involving more than 350 patients, found that those treated with pembrolizumab before and after surgery stayed cancer-free for an average of five years, up from 2.5 years with standard treatment. The trial, called Keynote, is the first in two decades to show such a significant improvement for this hard-to-treat cancer.

Head and neck cancers are notoriously difficult to treat, with more than half of patients dying within five years of diagnosis. The new approach, developed by researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research in London and led globally by Washington University Medical School in St Louis, uses pembrolizumab to prime the immune system before surgery and continue boosting it afterward.

Professor Kevin Harrington, who led the UK arm of the trial, explained that giving the drug before surgery helps the body recognize and attack cancer cells if they return. “It significantly decreases the chance of cancer spreading around the body, at which point it’s incredibly difficult to treat,” he said.

Laura Marston, 45, from Derbyshire, was one of the patients who benefited from the new treatment. Diagnosed with advanced tongue cancer in 2019 and given only a 30% chance of surviving five years, she is now cancer-free and working full-time. “Just having this amazing immunotherapy has given me my life back again,” she said.

The trial’s results, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, suggest that pembrolizumab could soon become a new standard of care for advanced head and neck cancer. Researchers are calling for the treatment to be made available on the NHS.

About 12,800 people are diagnosed with head and neck cancer each year in the UK. The study was funded by the drug company MSD and involved 192 hospitals across 24 countries.