Pembrolizumab improves survival outcomes in ovarian cancer trial
Therapy shows ability to help patients with platinum-resistant type of disease
Treatment with pembrolizumab — an immune-modulating therapy sold for some cancers under the brand name Keytruda — improved survival among people with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer in a Phase 3 trial, according to new data announced by the therapy’s developer, Merck.
“This marks the first time a [pembrolizumab]-based regimen has shown the ability to help certain patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer live longer, and the first time an immune checkpoint inhibitor-based regimen has demonstrated an overall survival benefit in ovarian cancer,” Gursel Aktan, MD, PhD, vice president of global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, said in a company press release.
Therapy targets protein that cancer cells use to evade immune system
Ovarian cancer is a form of gynecological cancer that develops in or on the ovaries. Platinum-based chemotherapy is a common first-line treatment, but in some people, the cancer recurs and is resistant to platinum-based agents.
Pembrolizumab is an immune-modulating therapy designed to block the activity of PD-L1, a protein that cancer cells use to evade the immune system. By blocking PD-L1, the therapy essentially aims to unleash the immune system to attack and kill cancer cells. It is not approved for ovarian cancer, but is authorized for the treatment of several other cancer types.
The Phase 3 clinical trial KEYNOTE-B96 (NCT05116189) is testing pembrolizumab against a placebo in people with recurrent, platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. All of the trial participants were also given the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel with or without bevacizumab (sold as Avastin, among other brand names), an approved ovarian cancer treatment that works by targeting tumor blood vessels.
The positive results from this trial add to the growing body of evidence supporting the potential benefit of [pembrolizumab] across gynecological cancers, including this difficult-to-treat form of ovarian cancer for which patients are in need of new options.
KEYNOTE-B96’s main goal was to see if patients given pembrolizumab would have better progression-free survival, referring to the length of time that patients are alive without their cancer growing or getting worse. A prespecified interim analysis of the ongoing study showed that the trial met its goal, according to Merck.
“The positive results from this trial add to the growing body of evidence supporting the potential benefit of [pembrolizumab] across gynecological cancers, including this difficult-to-treat form of ovarian cancer for which patients are in need of new options,” Aktan said.
The study met its other goal of showing better overall survival with pembrolizumab in the subgroup of participants whose tumors expressed PD-L1, according to Merck. The company said the safety profile of pembrolizumab in this study was consistent with the therapy’s known safety profile in other cancer types.
Merck did not provide details about the study results, noting full results will be presented at scientific meetings in the future.
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