SAN FRANCISCO — Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy should be considered the new first-line standard of care in advanced esophageal cancer, according to the final results of a large phase 3 study.
An interim analysis of the KEYNOTE-590 study, published in 2020, found that the combination of pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in the first-line setting proved superior to chemotherapy alone in all outcome measures.
The updated analysis, which adds 12 months of follow-up data, shows "first-line pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy continued to provide clinically meaningful benefits in all patients with locally advanced and metastatic esophageal cancer, including [gastro-esophageal junction] adenocarcinoma," said lead author Jean-Philippe Metges, MD, of the CHU Brest-Institut de Cancerologie et d'Hematologie ARPEGO Network, Brest, France.
Similar quality-of-life and safety data were also observed with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy vs chemotherapy alone, Metges added.
"These longer-term data further support first-line pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy as a new standard of care in patients with locally advanced and metastatic esophageal cancer," he said.
The updated analysis was presented at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
Pembro for Esophageal Cancer
Pembrolizumab first received regulatory approvalin 2019 as monotherapy in the second-line setting to treat recurrent locally advanced or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the esophagus in tumors with PD-L1 expression.
