Pembrolizumab aids survival with high-risk endometrial cancer

Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improves disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with high-risk endometrial cancer after surgery with curative intent, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Brian M. Slomovitz, M.D., from Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, and colleagues conducted a protocol-prespecified subgroup analysis of patients with mismatch repair-deficient (dMMR) endometrial cancer from the phase 3 ENGOT-en11/GOG-3053/KEYNOTE-B21 study undergoing surgery with curative intent. The analysis included patients randomly assigned to pembrolizumab 200 mg or placebo (six cycles) plus carboplatin-paclitaxel (four to six cycles) every three weeks, then pembrolizumab 400 mg (141 patients) or placebo (140 patients) every six weeks (six cycles).

The researchers reported that an interim analysis showed DFS favored pembrolizumab (hazard ratio, 0.31), with median DFS not reached in either group. For pembrolizumab and placebo, two-year DFS rates were 92.4 and 80.2 percent, respectively. No new safety signals were reported.

“Preplanned subgroup analysis based on the study’s stratification factors suggests that pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy improves DFS and is clinically relevant for patients with dMMR tumors in the curative-intent setting,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, which manufactures pembrolizumab and funded the study.

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