Merck is the producer of Keytruda (pembroizumab), a drug that aims to boost the body’s immune system and use it to fight cancer cells.
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Approximately two thirds of patients enrolled in the clinical trial whose tumors could be tested were PD-L1-positive (meaning the patient had PD-L1 expressed in at least one percent of their tumor cells).
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“This important news means that we now have a new immunotherapy option to help patients with squamous and non-squamous metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with disease progression on or after platinum-containing chemotherapy and whose tumors express PD-L1”, said Dr. Naiyer Rizvi, director of thoracic oncology and director of immunotherapeutics, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia University Medical Center, and a principal investigator for the Keytruda lung cancer clinical program. The found no significant difference between those who had the chemotherapy drug docetaxel or one or two dosage sizes of pembrolizumba. It is to be used for a specific group of non-small cell lung cancer patients that also have a genetic mutation. Pembrolizumab which is marketed under the name of Keytruda already has a FDA approval for the deadly form of skin cancer, or melanoma, and other types of non-small-cell lung cancers in advanced stages.
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Dr. Edward Garon, a researcher at UCLA, said in a press release, the the continuation of refining and expanding the selection of patients who will benefit from this type of therapy, doctors are making profound changes to the way these types of patients are being treated.
The study was published online in the journal The Lancet.
The tumors of these patients had all produced a protein called PD-L1.
The researchers note that further studies are needed to find out if patients who express PD-L1 in less than 1% of tumor cells might benefit from pembrolizumab.
KEYNOTE-010 is the first study of its kind to evaluate the potential of an immunotherapy compared to chemotherapy based on prospective measurement of PD-L1 (programmed death receptor-ligand 1) expression in patients with NSCLC. So, by blocking the interaction between PD-1 and PD-L1, pembrolizumab in effect enables the patient’s immune system to attack the cancer.
“I believe we should treat patients with the best available drugs as soon as possible”.
But Keytruda offers new hope for lung cancer patients. Study’s lead researcher Roy Herbst from Yale School of Medicine in New Haven said that the drug’s benefit was more in those having 50% or more tumors expressing RD-L1.
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“In this direction, I am eager to see the results of ongoing studies testing [Keytruda] in the first-line setting and as an adjuvant after surgery to hopefully reduce high rates of lung cancer recurrence”, he added.
