2023-04-20 11:23:50
The first-line therapy for endometrial cancer has so far been the chemotherapy combination paclitaxel plus carboplatin. In the phase III study NRG-Gy018, the addition of pembrolizumab to the standard chemotherapy in patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer was investigated. The results were published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published and point to pembrolizumab as a new beacon of hope.
A total of 816 patients with advanced (stage III, IVA or IVB) endometrial cancer or recurrence were included in the double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized phase III study. They were assigned to the two groups (pembrolizumab vs. placebo) in a ratio of 1:1. The groups received pembrolizumab (200 mg) or placebo with the combination therapy paclitaxel plus carboplatin every three weeks for a total of six cycles, followed by 14 maintenance cycles of pembrolizumab (400 mg) every six weeks. A stratification into two cohorts was also performed, depending on whether the patients had a mismatch-repair-deficient (dMMR; n=225) or mismatch-repair-competent (pMMR; n=591) status. In the dMMR cohort, 112 patients received pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy and 113 patients received placebo, while in the pMMR cohort 295 patients received pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy and 296 received placebo. Previous adjuvant chemotherapy was also permissible if the treatment-free interval was at least twelve months. The primary endpoint was progression-free survival.
#hope #Pembrolizumab #addon