BioCentury
ARTICLE | Clinical News

Keytruda monotherapy benefit extended to low PD-L1 expression, though doubts linger

June 8, 2018 3:33 PM UTC

Detailed data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-042 trial showed that Keytruda pembrolizumab from Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE:MRK) given as monotherapy in the first-line setting could be further extended to treat non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with PD-L1 expression of at least 1% and spare them from the addition of chemotherapy. However, an exploratory analysis of the data suggest the benefit may not be as robust in some patients as in others.

KEYNOTE-042's data were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago and showed that first-line treatment with the PD-1 inhibitor given as monotherapy increased median overall survival (OS), the primary endpoint, by 4.6 months vs. standard of care (SOC) platinum-based chemotherapy (16.7 vs. 12.1 months, HR=0.81, p=0.0018)...