Pembrolizumab prolongs overall survival in some with advanced esophageal cancer

Reuters Health - 13/11/2020 - Pembrolizumab treatment prolongs overall survival compared with chemotherapy in patients with advanced esophageal carcinoma whose tumors have elevated PD-L1 scores, according to results from the KEYNOTE-181 study. When first-line chemotherapy fails patients, there is no accepted standard of care. In the phase-2 KEYNOTE-180 study, pembrolizumab, a monoclonal anti-PD-1 antibody, provided durable responses in patients with esophageal cancer that had progressed after two or more prior therapies. Dr. Toshihiko Doi of National Cancer Center Hospital East, in Kashiwa, Japan, and colleagues in the open-label, randomized, phase-3 KEYNOTE-181 study evaluated the outcomes of treatment with pembrolizumab versus the investigator's choice of paclitaxel, docetaxel, or irinotecan in patients with advanced or metastatic esophageal cancer who had progressed after one line of prior therapy. Among the 628 patients included in the study, expression o...

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Posted on 13 November, 202020 November, 2020