VIDEO: KEYNOTE-001 sheds light on ‘big’ question in advanced NSCLC

CHICAGO — In this video, Jeffrey P. Ward, MD, PhD, thoracic oncologist at Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University in St. Louis, reviews long-term data on the use of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Updated findings from the KEYNOTE-001 study presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting showed that pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) was associated with 5-year overall response rates of 42% among treatment-naive patients and 23% among previously treated patients. Meanwhile, 5-years OS rates were 23.2% and 15.5%, respectively.

“This really compares favorably to our traditional data, where we really would think that only about 5% of patients with metastatic lung cancer would be alive 5 years after starting therapy,” Ward told HemOnc Today.

Of the patients who received 2 years or more of treatment, the 5-year OS rate was 78.6% among treatment-naive patients and 75.8% among previously treated patients, with corresponding ORR rates of 86% for the treatment-naive patients and 91% for the previously treated patients.

“For patients who received 2 years of pembrolizumab, almost 80% of them are alive and doing well,” Ward said. “That’s one of the big questions that we now have in practice: If patients received 2 years of pembrolizumab, what do we do with those patients? Now we have a little bit more data to understand how those patients are going to do.”

Reference:

Gainor JF, et al. Abstract 9008. Presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting; May 31- June 4, 2019; Chicago.

Disclosure: Ward reports no relevant financial disclosures.