Checkpoint inhibitor plus chemo prolongs survival of people with lung cancer

The 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Cancer Research Association (AACR) is buzzing with good news on the utility of the therapeutic antibodies known as immune checkpoint inhibitors.  Positive clinical results were reported for several malignancies including metastatic melanoma and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.   Remarkable results were also reported in lung cancer.  Specifically, the KEYNOTE-189 trial showed that patients with newly diagnosed metastatic nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy had significantly longer overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) compared with those who received chemotherapy alone.   Dr. Leena Gandhi, a leader of the study and director of the Thoracic Medical Oncology Program at the Perlmutter Cancer Center at New York University Langone Health told AACR “Results from KEYNOTE-189 are practice-changing. This phase III trial demonstrated an improvement in overall response rate (ORR), PFS, and OS across all groups of patients, irrespective of PD-L1 expression, halving the risk of death, which is an unprecedented effect of therapy in the first-line setting for advanced nonsquamous NSCLC without EGFR or ALK alterations.”   Read the full story at …http://www.aacr.org/Newsroom/Pages/News-Release-Detail.aspx?ItemID=1175#.WtYmDWbMzuQ