PD-1 Inhibition in First-Line Prolongs Survival in Cervical Cancer

Updated findings of KEYNOTE-826, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, continued to demonstrate a significant survival benefit with the addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to standard treatment for previously untreated recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer.

In this exclusive MedPage Today video, Deanna Gerber, MD, of the NYU Long Island School of Medicine in Mineola, New York, explained the study design and clinical significance of the phase III trial.

Following is a transcript of her remarks:

The KEYNOTE-826 [trial] enrolled patients with metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer. And the two arms were comparing chemotherapy plus-or-minus bevacizumab [Avastin], which is the standard-of-care arm, versus the experimental arm, which was chemotherapy plus-or-minus bevacizumab with immunotherapy, Keytruda.

The patients were stratified into PD-L1 expression. So they stratified patients in the PD-L1 expressions >1%, >10%, and then all comers.

And what this study found was that in all three groups, that there was an improvement in overall survival and progression-free survival with the use of chemotherapy plus-or-minus bevacizumab with immunotherapy.

This likely represents a new standard of care in the treatment of these patients with metastatic or recurrent cervical cancer. This group of patients is technically considered incurable. And so these results in the updated overall survival analysis showed over a year of prolongment of life in all groups, regardless of PD-L1 expression, which is pretty significant in this incurable group of patients.