New drug combination shows promise in treating advanced endometrial cancer.

Two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that adding immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab to the standard chemotherapy regimen of carboplatin and paclitaxel reduced the risk that patients' advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer would return by up to 70%. The impact was more dramatic in women with a mismatch repair-deficient tumor, a specific type of endometrial cancer. The Food and Drug Administration would need to amend its guidance on using immunotherapy in this way before it's widely implemented as the protocol for treating late-stage endometrial cancer.