Merck Keytruda Sets New Five-Year Survival Standard for Advanced Lung Cancer

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Nearly 25 percent of patients receiving Merck & Co's Keytruda immunotherapy as an initial treatment for advanced lung cancer were still alive after five years, according to data presented at a major medical meeting held on Saturday.

This represents a huge gain over the five-year historical survival rate of just 5% for people with the disease before the introduction of drugs like Keytruda, which push the immune system to fight cancer.

"The consistently negative perspectives badociated with the diagnosis of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer are certainly no longer appropriate," said Dr. Edward Garon, Lung Cancer Specialist at the University of California at Los Angeles, who said directed the study. .

"This is a very significant improvement," said Dr. Roy Baynes, Chief Medical Officer of Merck, about the five-year data collected during a telephone interview. "It's really a fundamental change in the results" for patients.

Keytruda competes with competing medicines from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche and others in several types of cancer. These data are likely to further strengthen its dominant position in newly diagnosed advanced lung cancer, by far the largest commercial opportunity in oncology.

Keytruda, approved for the first time in 2014 for advanced melanoma, is the main driver of Merck's growth. It surpbaded Bristol's Opdivo as a leader in immuno-oncology, with sales expected to exceed $ 10 billion this year and $ 20 billion in 2024, according to Refinitiv data.

The study, dubbed Keynote-001 and presented at the meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago, involved 550 patients with non-small cell lung cancer at a advanced stage.

After five years, 23.2% of patients who had not received any treatment before Keytruda were alive. This was compared to a 5-year survival rate of 15.5% in previously treated patients who subsequently received Keytruda.

Patients whose tumors had higher levels of PD-L1 protein targeted by Keytruda performed better during the trial. In the previously untreated group, nearly 30% were alive after five years if their PD-L1 expression was 50% or more, compared with 15.7% 5-year survival with lower PD-L1 levels. at 50%.

KEYTRUDA FOR GASTRIC CANCER

In addition, the researchers presented more details of an advanced stage study on Keytruda as an initial or first-line treatment for advanced cancer of the gastric or gastroesophageal stomach.

By the end of April, Merck had stated that Keytruda had not shown significant improvement over chemotherapy in this study, known as Keynote-062. Additional data, however, showed that Keytruda prolonged the lives of some patients whose tumors had high levels of PD-L1.

Thirty-nine percent of the high PD-L1 patients who received Keytruda alone were still alive after two years. This was compared to a two-year survival rate of 22% for people treated with chemotherapy, the current standard of care for these patients.

The addition of Keytruda to chemotherapy did not improve survival over chemotherapy alone, researchers found.

Dr. Richard Schilsky, ASCO Medical Lead, said the results of this study underscore the potential for using Keytruda, which has fewer toxic side effects, in place of chemotherapy.

"For some, it can significantly prolong survival," he said.