Cited by 3,617Lung Cancer Treatments and MutationsCancer Immunotherapy and BiomarkersLung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy for squamous non-small-cell lung cancer

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Paz-Ares, Luis, Luft, Alexander, Vicente, David, Tafreshi, Ali, Gümüş, Mahmut, Mazières, Julien, Hermes, Barbara, Çay Şenler, Filiz +14 more·2018·New England Journal of Medicine

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Standard first-line therapy for metastatic, squamous non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is platinum-based chemotherapy or pembrolizumab (for patients with programmed death ligand 1 [PD-L1] expression on ≥50% of tumor cells). More recently, pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy was shown to significantly prolong overall survival among patients with nonsquamous NSCLC. METHODS: In this double-blind, phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, 559 patients with untreated metastatic, squamous NSCLC to receive 200 mg of pembrolizumab or saline placebo for up to 35 cycles; all the patients also received carboplatin and either paclitaxel or nanoparticle albumin-bound [nab]-paclitaxel for the first 4 cycles. Primary end points were overall survival and progression-free survival. RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 7.8 months, the median overall survival was 15.9 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 13.2 to not reached) in the pembrolizumab-combination group and 11.3 months (95% CI, 9.5 to 14.8) in the placebo-combination group (hazard ratio for death, 0.64; 95% CI, 0.49 to 0.85; P<0.001). The overall survival benefit was consistent regardless of the level of PD-L1 expression. The median progression-free survival was 6.4 months (95% CI, 6.2 to 8.3) in the pembrolizumab-combination group and 4.8 months (95% CI, 4.3 to 5.7) in the placebo-combination group (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.45 to 0.70; P<0.001). Adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 69.8% of the patients in the pembrolizumab-combination group and in 68.2% of the patients in the placebo-combination group. Discontinuation of treatment because of adverse events was more frequent in the pembrolizumab-combination group than in the placebo-combination group (13.3% vs. 6.4%). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with previously untreated metastatic, squamous NSCLC, the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy with carboplatin plus paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel resulted in significantly longer overall survival and progression-free survival than chemotherapy alone. (Funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme; KEYNOTE-407 ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02775435 .).

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Crossref · 10.1056/nejmoa1810865

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  • Chemotherapy plus immune checkpoint blockade has been recently approved as the first-line regimen for NSCLC, including patients with KRAS mutations.

    “chemotherapy plus immune checkpoint blockade has been recently approved as the first-line regimen for NSCLC, including patients with KRAS mutations (45, 46).”

    From New Horizons in KRAS-Mutant Lung Cancer: Dawn After Darkness (2019) · cites this paper as [45]

  • Addition of pembrolizumab significantly prolongs survival of NSCLC patients.

    “Importantly, two remarkable phase III trials (KEYNOTE-189 and KEYNOTE-407) demonstrated that addition of pembrolizumab (Keytruda, anti-PD1) could significantly prolong the survival of NSCLC patients (45, 97).”

    From New Horizons in KRAS-Mutant Lung Cancer: Dawn After Darkness (2019) · cites this paper as [45]

  • Pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy is approved for metastatic, non-squamous NSCLC and for squamous lung carcinoma excluding EGFR or ALK mutations.

    “The promising results from these studies have led to the approval of pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin-pemetrexed) for metastatic, non-squamous NSCLC, and the approval of pembrolizumab in combination with chemotherapy (carboplatin and Taxol) for patients with squamous lung carcinoma, excluding those carrying EGFR or ALK mutations.”

    From New Horizons in KRAS-Mutant Lung Cancer: Dawn After Darkness (2019) · cites this paper as [45]

  • Phase III data show overall survival and/or progression-free survival benefit for immune checkpoint therapy plus chemotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, triple-negative breast cancer, bladder cancer, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

    “Toward this end, combinations of ICTs with concurrent and/or sequential chemotherapy are under extensive investigation, with phase III clinical data demonstrating overall survival and/or progression-free survival benefi t in NSCLC ( 63-66 ), small cell lung cancer ( 51,52 ), triple-negative breast cancer ( 67 ), bladder cancer ( 53 ), and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma ( 68 ).”

    From The Next Decade of Immune Checkpoint Therapy (2021) · cites this paper as [64]

  • In KEYNOTE-189 and KEYNOTE-407 (phase 3), pembrolizumab combined with standard chemotherapy led to better OS and PFS in NSCLC patients, relative to chemotherapy monotherapy.

    “Later, in two phase 3 clinical studies (KEYNOTE-189 and KEYNOTE-407), pembrolizumab combined with standard chemotherapy led to a better overall survival (OS) and PFS in NSCLC patients, relative to chemotherapy monotherapy [53, 54].”

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [10]10. patients with previously treated nonsmall-cell lung cancer (OAK): a phase 3, open-label, multicentre randomised controlled trial. Lancet 2017; 389: 255-65.
  2. [17]17. Med 2017; 376: 2415-26.

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Authors
Paz-Ares, L., Luft, A., Vicente, D., Tafreshi, A., Gümüş, M., Mazières, J., Hermes, B., Çay Şenler, F., Csőszi, T., Fülöp, A., Rodríguez-Cid, J., Wilson, J., Sugawara, S., Kato, T., Lee, K. H., Cheng, Y., Novello, S., Halmos, B., Li, X., Lubiniecki, G. M., Piperdi, B., & Kowalski, D. M.
Affiliations
  • Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (FR)
  • From Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Spanish National Cancer Research Center, Universidad Complutense and Ciberonc, Madrid (L.P.-A.), and Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Seville (D.V.) — both in Spain; Leningrad Regional Clinical Hospital, St. Petersburg, Russia (A.L.); Wollongong Oncology and Wollongong Private Hospital, Wollongong, NSW, Australia (A.T.); Istanbul Medeniyet University Hospital, Istanbul (M.G.), and Ankara University, Ankara (F.Ç.Ş.) — both in Turkey; Centre...
  • Ankara University (TR)
Venue
New England Journal of Medicine
Published
2018-11-22
Volume
379
Issue
21
Pages
2040-2051
ISSN
  • 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
  • 1533-4406
OpenAlex
W2892640821
Cited by
3,617
References
26
Citations by year
2026: 220 · 2025: 328 · 2024: 445 · 2023: 440 · 2022: 565 · 2021: 630 · 2020: 606 · 2019: 361 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 1 · 2013: 1
FWCI
303.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Institutional Research Information System University of Turin (University of Turin) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion)
  • RISalud Institutional Health Repository of Andalucía (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
Merck (N/A)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Lung Cancer Treatments and Mutations
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
Keywords
pembrolizumab, lung squamous cell carcinoma, metastatic lung cancer, PD-L1 expression, immune checkpoint inhibitors, carboplatin, paclitaxel, nab-paclitaxel, first-line therapy, overall survival, progression-free survival, immune-related adverse events, treatment discontinuation, chemoimmunotherapy, PD-1 inhibitors
MeSH terms
Progression-Free Survival, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols, Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Lung Neoplasms, Male, Middle Aged, Survival Analysis, Carboplatin, Paclitaxel, Intention to Treat Analysis, Programmed Cell Death 1 Receptor, Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized

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