Skin Cancer

This phase II/III trial studies how well sentinel lymph node biopsy works and compares sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery to standard neck dissection as part of the treatment for early-stage oral cavity cancer. Sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery is a procedure that removes a smaller number of lymph nodes from your neck because it uses an imaging agent to see which lymph nodes are most likely to have cancer. Standard neck dissection, such as elective neck dissection, removes many of the lymph nodes in your neck. Using sentinel lymph node biopsy surgery may work better in treating patients with early-stage oral cavity cancer compared to standard elective neck dissection.

Researchers are looking for new ways to treat people with head and neck cancer whose cancer has come back after treatment (recurrent) or whose cancer has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic). Some people with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer are treated with chemotherapy and immunotherapy, but the cancer gets worse.

The goal of this study is to learn if more people who receive lenvatinib and pembrolizumab have a better overall survival rate than people who receive standard chemotherapy treatment.

This is a randomized, double-blind, study that compares pembrolizumab (MK-3475) with placebo given as adjuvant therapy in participants with high-risk locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (LA cSCC) that have undergone surgery with curative intent in combination with radiotherapy. The primary hypothesis is that pembrolizumab is superior to placebo in increasing recurrence free survival (RFS).