Keytruda
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March 16, 2020
New Treatments For Bladder Cancer in 2020
Emma Shtivelman, PhDIn 2019 and early 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a number of new drugs for bladder cancer of all stages, and more treatments are on the horizon. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening right now in bladder cancer treatment: Non-muscle invasive bladder cancer treatments (NMIBC) In patients with NMIBC, tumors are confined to the inner cell layer of the bladder… Read more »
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December 26, 2019
Pembrolizumab Approved for Some Patients with Advanced Esophageal Cancer Bookmark
George Lundberg, MDArticle from the National Cancer Institute curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes:
In 2019, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab for certain advanced esophageal cancers, depending on testing results. The National Cancer Institute explains here.
Go to full article published by the National Cancer Institute.
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June 24, 2019
FDA Expands Pembrolizumab Indication for First-Line Treatment of NSCLC (Tps ≥1%) Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“On April 11, 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA, Merck Inc.) for the first-line treatment of patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation or metastatic NSCLC. Patients’ tumors must have no EGFR or ALK genomic aberrations and express PD-L1 (Tumor Proportion Score [TPS] ≥1%) determined by an FDA-approved test.
“Pembrolizumab was previously approved as a single agent for the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors express PD-L1 TPS ≥50%.”
Go to full article published by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 11, 2019.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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June 24, 2019
Pembrolizumab Shows Durable Benefit as Third-Line Treatment of Advanced Small Cell Lung Cancer Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“Pembrolizumab demonstrated antitumor activity and induced durable responses in patients with advanced small cell lung cancer who had received two or more previous lines of therapy, according to pooled data from two KEYNOTE trials presented at American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting.”
Go to full article published by Healio on April 3, 2019
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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April 8, 2019
A Single Dose of a PD-1 Inhibitor Before Surgery May Predict Outcomes in Patients With Melanoma Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“A single dose of a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor before resection for melanoma may predict clinical outcomes for patients. Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania—who documented this finding in the largest cohort of patients to be treated with anti–PD-1 drugs before surgery—also showed that immune responses brought on by this therapy can peak as early as 7 days after treatment—much earlier than previous studies have shown. These findings were published by Huang et al in Nature Medicine.”
Go to full article published by The ASCO Post on March 7, 2019.
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December 12, 2018
Pembrolizumab Regimen Receives FDA Approval for Frontline Treatment of Squamous NSCLC Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt:
“Based on findings from the phase III KEYNOTE-407 trial, pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has been approved by the FDA for use in combination with carboplatin and either paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane) for the frontline treatment of patients with metastatic squamous non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
“Results from the trial showed combining pembrolizumab with chemotherapy reduced the risk of death by 36% compared with chemotherapy alone in patients with metastatic squamous NSCLC. The median overall survival (OS) was 15.9 months (95% CI, 13.2 – not evaluable) with pembrolizumab versus 11.3 months (95% CI, 9.5-14.8) with chemotherapy alone (HR, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.49-0.85; P = .0017). The OS benefit was observed regardless of PD-L1 expression level, choice of taxane, age, sex, and ECOG performance status.”
Go to full article published by Targeted Oncology on Oct 30, 2018.
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October 22, 2018
Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy Prolongs OS, PFS for Metastatic Lung Cancer Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from Healio:
“The addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy extended OS and PFS compared with chemotherapy alone among patients with metastatic, squamous, non-small-cell lung cancer, according to results of the randomized phase 3 KEYNOTE-407 trial presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s World Conference on Lung Cancer.
“The double-blind study included 559 treatment-naive patients with metastatic, squamous NSCLC. Patients who had symptomatic central nervous system metastases, a history of noninfectious pneumonitis that required the use of glucocorticoids, active autoimmune disease or who were receiving systemic immunosuppressive treatment were excluded.”
Go to full article published by Healio on Oct 1, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.
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October 1, 2018
Pembrolizumab Alone or With Chemotherapy for PD-L1–Positive NSCLC? Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from Cancer Network:
“Researchers found that in patients with non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and a Tumor Proportion Score (TPS) ≥ 50, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy failed to improve overall survival (OS) or progression-free survival (PFS) compared with pembrolizumab alone.
“Results from the study were presented in a poster presentation at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 19th World Conference on Lung Cancer, held September 23–26 in Toronto.”
Go to full article published by Cancer Network on Sep 24, 2018.
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September 18, 2018
Could Adding a TLR9 Agonist Improve Responses in Metastatic Melanoma? Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from Cancer Network:
“A phase I trial found promising activity and good tolerability with the combination of pembrolizumab and a stimulant of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) known as SD-101 in patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma, particularly in those who had not received prior anti–programmed death 1 (PD-1)/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) therapy.
“PD-1/PD-L1 inhibition has improved outcomes in metastatic melanoma, and studies have indicated that combination therapy can increase immune responses further. “Despite the improvement in response rates with combination immunotherapy, a large unmet need remains,” wrote study authors led by Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.”
Go to full article published by Cancer Network on Sep 5, 2018.
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August 22, 2018
FDA Approves Pembrolizumab in Combination With Chemotherapy for First-Line Treatment of Metastatic Nonsquamous NSCLC Bookmark
Emma Shtivelman, PhDExcerpt from The ASCO Post:
“Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in combination with pemetrexed (Alimta) and platinum as first-line treatment of patients with metastatic, nonsquamous non–small cell lung cancer with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations.
“Pembrolizumab was previously granted accelerated approval for this indication in May 2017 based on improvements in overall response rate and progression-free survival for patients randomized to pembrolizumab administered with pemetrexed and carboplatin as compared with pemetrexed and carboplatin alone in the KEYNOTE-021 study.”
Go to full article published by The ASCO Post on Aug 20, 2018.
If you’re wondering whether this story applies to your own cancer case or a loved one’s, we invite you to get support from Cancer Commons.