Nicoletta Colombo, MD, on Cervical Cancer: KEYNOTE-826 Trial of Pembrolizumab Plus Chemotherapy
ESMO Congress 2021
Nicoletta Colombo, MD, of the Istituto Europeo Oncologico, discusses phase III results that showed improvements in progression-free and overall survival with a combination of pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, compared with placebo and chemotherapy, for patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer. These benefits were seen regardless of PD-L1 expression and concomitant bevacizumab use, suggesting that pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, with or without bevacizumab, may be a new standard of care for this population (Abstract LBA2).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jason J. Luke, MD, of UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, discusses phase III results showing that adjuvant pembrolizumab for patients with resected stage IIB and IIC melanoma decreased the risk of disease recurrence or death by 35% compared with placebo. It was also associated with significantly prolonged recurrence-free survival (Abstract LBA3).
The ASCO Post Staff
Jonathan Lim, MBBS, MRCP, of Christie NHS Foundation Trust and the Francis Crick Institute, discusses results of an ESMO survey, which showed that the risk of poor well-being, distress, and burnout has continued to rise since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite improved job performance and sustained resilience. Those most at risk, he says, are women aged 40 years and younger (Abstract 561O).
The ASCO Post Staff
Javier Cortés, MD, PhD, of Barcelona’s IOB Institute of Oncology, discusses phase III data from the DESTINY-Breast03 study, which support trastuzumab deruxtecan becoming the standard of care for second-line treatment of women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract LBA1).
The ASCO Post Staff
Thomas Powles, MD, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, discusses phase II results from the NORSE study, which showed that the kinase inhibitor erdafitinib plus the monoclonal antibody cetrelimab produced meaningful responses in cisplatin-ineligible patients with first-line metastatic or locally advanced urothelial carcinoma and fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) alterations (Abstract LBA27).
The ASCO Post Staff
Naveen S. Vasudev, PhD, MBChB, of the University of Leeds, discusses phase II results from the PRISM trial, which showed that giving ipilimumab every 12 weeks instead of every 3 weeks, in combination with nivolumab, led to lower rates of grade 3 and 4 toxicities in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma. Efficacy appeared to be comparable between both arms (Abstract LBA29).
