SWOG S1801
Simply moving three doses of the same drug to before surgery improved outcomes, a result that changed how the field thinks about timing.
2-year EFS 72% vs 49% (HR 0.58), NEJM 2023. Same total drug exposure in both arms; the difference is attributed to priming the immune response while the tumour and its draining nodes are still present. Three-year follow-up presented at ESMO 2025 sustained the benefit. Together with NADINA it established neoadjuvant immunotherapy as standard for resectable stage III disease.
- 72 vs 49 out of 100 free of a major event at 2 years with Neoadjuvant + adjuvant pembrolizumab compared with Adjuvant pembrolizumab; 23 more per 100.
- Roughly one extra person helped for every 4 treated. That is a rough figure taken from the two percentages, not a guarantee for any one person.
- Put another way, the treated group had about 42 percent lower chance of the event at any given time (hazard ratio 0.58).
- This is a surrogate endpoint: it measures the cancer being controlled or absent on scans and tests, which often, but not always, translates into living longer.
- These results apply to the people the trial enrolled: Resectable stage IIIB-IV melanoma: three doses of pembrolizumab before surgery then 15 after, vs 18 doses after surgery. People in a different situation may not see the same effect.
Numbers are from the trial as recorded here; see the source links in the table below. This is orientation, not medical advice: ask your team how closely the trial population matches you.
313 participants enrolled.
| Endpoint | Arm | n | Value | HR (95% CI) | p | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event-free survival at 2 yearsprimary | Neoadjuvant + adjuvant pembrolizumab | — | 72% | 0.58 | — | link |
| Adjuvant pembrolizumab | — | 49% |
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- PersonHagen F. Kennecke
Shares SWOG Cancer Research Network, Melanoma.
- TrialKEYNOTE-006
Shares PD-1, Pembrolizumab, Melanoma.
- TermMajor pathological response (MPR)
Shares Neoadjuvant immunotherapy → response-adapted adjuvant, Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative, Melanoma.
- TrialNADINA
Shares Neoadjuvant immunotherapy → response-adapted adjuvant, Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative, PD-1, Melanoma.
- TrialKEYNOTE-689
Shares Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative, PD-1, Pembrolizumab.
- TrialKEYNOTE-671
Shares Neoadjuvant / adjuvant / perioperative, Pembrolizumab.
- PersonAntoni Ribas
Shares PD-1, Pembrolizumab, Melanoma.
- PersonTasuku Honjo
Shares PD-1, Pembrolizumab, Melanoma.