Drugs

Immunotherapy/Chemotherapy Combination Prolongs Survival in Advanced Biliary Tract Cancers

Photo: R. Katie Kelley/UCSF Health

May 27, 2023, 14:22

Immunotherapy/Chemotherapy Combination Prolongs Survival in Advanced Biliary Tract Cancers

In an article published by The ASCO Post, it states that “The addition of the checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab to chemotherapy with cisplatin/gemcitabine as first-line therapy improved overall survival in patients with advanced biliary tract cancer, according to results of the KEYNOTE-966 trial presented at the 2023 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting.¹ At a median follow-up of 25.6 months, patients in the combination therapy arm had a 17% lower risk of death than patients treated with chemotherapy alone.

KEYNOTE-966 was the largest randomized trial conducted to date in biliary tract cancer. Although the improvement in median overall survival was modest, results were hailed as a major achievement in this cancer and were published in The Lancet to coincide with the presentation at the AACR meeting.²

“This is one of very few positive trials in this difficult-to-treat population,” said lead author R. Katie Kelley, MD, Professor at the Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California San Francisco. “We saw a statistically significant and clinically meaningful difference, with a median duration of response that was prolonged. The data support pembrolizumab plus gemcitabine/cisplatin as a new treatment option for patients with previously untreated metastatic or unresectable biliary tract cancer,” Dr. Kelley told listeners. “We look forward to upcoming analysis of quality of life and biomarkers,” she added.”

Source: The ASCO Post