A study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology showed that after 2 years of treatment, pembrolizumab provided long-term overall survival benefit in patients with advanced, PD-L1 expressing NSCLC.

The results were from the KEYNOTE-010 clinical trials.

“The response that we have seen from pembrolizumab, in a subset of patients years after treatment ended, is remarkable, especially since their chemotherapy had initially failed,” according to Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD, chief of Medical Oncology at Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.

Results showed that overall survival was improved compared with docetaxel.

In patients expressing greater than 50% PD-L1 tumor proportion, OS was 34.5% at 36 months in the pembrolizumab group, compared to 12.7% in the docetaxel group.

In patients expressing more than 1% PD-L1 tumor proportion, OS at 36 months was 22.9% in the pembrolizumab group, vs 11% in the docetaxel group.

The study also found that a second-course of pembrolizumab treatment provided disease control in previously treated, PD-L1 expressing patients.

“Before we had pembrolizumab, survival from advanced lung cancer was measured in months, not years. It is too soon to say that pembrolizumab is a potential cure for a substantial number of patients whose tumors express PD-L1, and we know that it doesn’t work for all patients, but, the agent remains very, very promising," Herbst continued.

The researchers also noted that 79 of 690 patients received pembrolizumab for 2 years.

At 12-month follow-up, OS was 98.7% and PFS was 72.5% in these patients.


By MD /alert Staff