Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab for metastatic cervical cancer
James P. Crowley, Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Brown University and serves as a volunteer physician at the Rhode Island Free Clinic, shared an article by D. Lorusso on LinkedIn:
“Cervical cancer was the fourth most common cancer among women worldwide in 2020, accounting for 6.5% of all cancers.
Women with metastatic cervical cancer have a poor prognosis, with a 5-year overall survival (OS) rate of only 19%.
Standard of care first-line treatment of patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer consists of cisplatin or carboplatin plus paclitaxel, with or without bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting vascular endothelial growth factor (which attracts blood vessels to feed the cancer).
Antiangiogenic agents may enhance the anticancer activity of immunotherapy by normalizing the tumor vasculature, thereby improving T-cell trafficking and reducing vessel-mediated T-cell inactivation, and by interrupting aberrant immune–vascular crosstalk, thereby reducing overall immunosuppression (by the cancer).
Pembrolizumab is a type of targeted therapy drug called an immune checkpoint inhibitor (a type of immunotherapy). It is a monoclonal antibody that binds to the protein PD-1 on the surface of immune cells called T cells. It works by keeping cancer cells from suppressing the immune system.
The addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to chemotherapy resulted in clinically meaningful improvements in PFS and OS versus chemotherapy regardless of concomitant bevacizumab use.
These results provide further support for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) plus chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab (Avastin) as a standard of care for patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatic cervical cancer.”
Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy for advanced and recurrent cervical cancer: final analysis according to bevacizumab use in the randomized KEYNOTE-826 study.
Authors: D. Lorusso, et al.
James P. Crowley is a Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Brown University and serves as a volunteer physician at the Rhode Island Free Clinic. He has held leadership positions in the medical community, including past President of the Rhode Island Medical Society and the last President of The Providence Medical Association.
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