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

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 26 of the 26 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

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

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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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Metadata

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
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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