All articles tagged with #pembrolizumab
A groundbreaking clinical trial shows that an immunotherapy drug, pembrolizumab, doubles the time head and neck cancer patients remain cancer-free, offering new hope for a difficult-to-treat cancer, with promising results suggesting it should be made available on the NHS.
A groundbreaking clinical trial shows that the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab can double the time head and neck cancer patients remain cancer-free compared to standard treatments, offering new hope for improved outcomes in these patients.
Jeff Cook, diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2019, became cancer-free after two years of treatment with pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug, highlighting a significant medical breakthrough for advanced cancer treatment.
Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug also known as Keytruda, shows promising potential in treating bowel cancer by shrinking tumors and potentially eliminating the need for surgery and chemotherapy. This breakthrough, described as a "game-changer," enhances recovery rates and leverages the body's immune system to target cancer cells, offering fewer side effects compared to conventional treatments.
A clinical trial has shown that the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, which targets and blocks a specific protein on immune cells, can significantly increase the chances of curing bowel cancer and may replace the need for surgery. The trial, presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, found that 59% of patients had no signs of cancer after treatment with pembrolizumab, compared to fewer than 5% with standard chemotherapy. Researchers are optimistic but note that further studies are needed to confirm long-term effectiveness.
Research suggests that the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, currently used for triple-negative breast cancer, could also benefit women with early-stage ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer. A global trial showed a significant increase in the lack of cancer signs in tissue samples when pembrolizumab was used alongside chemotherapy, regardless of the patient's age or menopausal status. The findings, presented at the European Breast Cancer Conference, indicate the potential for more effective treatments for this common type of breast cancer, pending further research and regulatory approval. Additionally, a genetic test has been developed to identify how patients with triple-negative early-stage breast cancer will respond to immunotherapy drugs, allowing for more personalized treatment approaches.
Three new advances in lung cancer treatment were unveiled at the American Society for Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago. The most exciting was a high-tech drug called pembrolizumab, which boosts the immune system and significantly slows the return of the disease. The drug is currently only offered to NHS patients with advanced lung cancer whose disease has spread, but the treatment could now be offered to thousands more. Another drug, SKB264, has been dubbed a "warhead drug" as it can penetrate tumours, delivering a powerful "payload" of chemotherapy agents that attack cancer cells from the inside.
A phase 2 clinical trial of pembrolizumab has shown promising results, with 42% of patients with metastatic brain cancer benefiting from the treatment. Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy, was tolerated and demonstrated clinical benefit in patients with brain metastases. While pembrolizumab showed promise, further studies are needed to identify potential biomarkers that can predict patient response to therapy.
Moderna and Merck's personalized mRNA cancer vaccine, a neoantigen cancer vaccine, has shown clinical benefit in reducing the risk of relapse when combined with Merck's immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, according to early experimental results. The vaccine offers hope for tailored cancer vaccines as a treatment.
Pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, in combination with gemcitabine and cisplatin, has been found to improve overall survival in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer compared to gemcitabine and cisplatin alone, according to a phase 3 trial. The study involved 1,069 patients and found that the pembrolizumab group had a median overall survival of 12.7 months compared to 10.9 months in the placebo group. The combination therapy could be a new treatment option for patients with previously untreated metastatic or unresectable biliary tract cancer.
The National Cancer Institute has launched a phase 3 randomized clinical trial of a two-drug combination to treat patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The trial, called the Pragmatica-Lung Study, aims to increase accessibility to clinical trials by using a pragmatic approach that removes many of the barriers that prevent people from joining clinical trials. The trial will evaluate whether a combination of two FDA-approved medications, ramucirumab and pembrolizumab, improves overall survival over standard treatment in people with advanced NSCLC whose disease has progressed after previous treatment with immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
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.