Keytruda combination therapy to prevent recurrence of 'most toxic' breast cancer dramatically improves survival

Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for about 15% of all breast cancers

A few days ago, the latest results of the KEYNOTE-522 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) have brought important progress in the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer

Screenshot source: The New England Journal of Medicine

Currently, neoadjuvant chemotherapy is the standard of care for patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer

The KEYNOTE-522 study is a Phase 3 trial exploring neoadjuvant and adjuvant treatment options in patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer

Specific protocols for neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy:

Neoadjuvant therapy: Patients received pembrolizumab (200 mg every 3 weeks for 4 cycles) or placebo plus paclitaxel and carboplatin neoadjuvant therapy, followed by pembrolizumab (4 cycles) Or placebo + doxorubicin-cyclophosphamide or epirubicin-cyclophosphamide treatment

Adjuvant pembrolizumab: every 3 weeks for up to 9 cycles

Results from a previous analysis showed that the addition of pembrolizumab to neoadjuvant chemotherapy significantly improved the rate of pathological complete response (defined as the absence of invasive cancer in the breast and negative lymph nodes) at the time of definitive surgery in patients with one of the end points)

At the time of this interim analysis (data cutoff date, March 23, 2021), the median follow-up was 39.

The most common event was distant recurrence, which occurred in 60 patients (7.

Adverse events occurred mainly during the neoadjuvant treatment phase and were consistent with the known safety profile of pembrolizumab and chemotherapy

References

[1] Peter Schmid, et al.

[2] New drug combination for aggressive breast cancer could save thousands of lives.

(Original abridged)