pembrolizumab

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    What’s New in Immunotherapy for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer?

    Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Chemotherapy was once the only treatment option for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). But five years ago, immunotherapy—treatment that boosts a patient’s own immune system to fight cancer—came on the scene. In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the drug nivolumab (brand name Opdivo) as next-line treatment for NSCLC after chemotherapy. Today, new immunotherapy options continue to alter the NSCLC… Read more »

  •   George Lundberg, MD

    Article 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.

    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.

  •   George Lundberg, MD

    Article from Medscape curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    This piece describes huge improvements in the standard of care and outcomes from combo therapy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

    Go to full article published by Medscape.

    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.

  •   George Lundberg, MD

    Article from Cancer Network curated by Editor in Chief George Lundberg, MD, who notes: 

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new combination therapy for certain advanced endometrial cancers.

    Go to full article published by Cancer Network.

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  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “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.

  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “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

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  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “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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  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt:

    “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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  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt 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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  •   Emma Shtivelman, PhD

    Excerpt 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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