Drug: Pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck)

Status: Approved in combination with pemetrexed (Alimta, Eli Lilly) and carboplatin (Paraplatin, Bristol-Myers Squibb) (pem/carbo) for the first-line treatment of metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), irrespective of PD-L1 expression

Significant Information:

• Based on the KEYNOTE-021 trial, which evaluated the combination treatment in 123 previously untreated patients with metastatic nonsquamous NSCLC with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations and irrespective of PD-L1 expression
  • Pembrolizumab + pem/carbo demonstrated an objective response rate that was nearly double that of pem/carbo alone
  • 93% of patients who received pembrolizumab + pem/carbo had a duration of response of 6 months or more compared with 81% who received pem/carbo alone
  • Patients treated with pembrolizumab + pem/carbo had a median PFS of 13.0 months compared with 8.9 months in patients treated with pem/carbo alone

Adverse Events: Acute kidney injury, anemia, decreased neutrophil count, dyspnea, fatigue, pneumonitis

Other Indications: Treatment of patients with metastatic NSCLC whose tumors have high PD-L1 expression, both first-line and after progression with platinum-containing therapy, recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma after progression with platinum-containing therapy, and unresectable or metastatic melanoma 

—Based on a company press release