Pembrolizumab is superior to chemotherapy as 1st-line treatment for advanced NSCLC patients with PD

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In this phase III study reported at the ESMO 2016 Cancer Congress, patients with PD-L1-positive tumors were randomly treated with either pembrolizumab or standard platinum-based chemotherapy. Pembrolizumab proved to be both more efficacious and safer than chemotherapy. It's worth noting that pembrolizumab was superior when compared to standard chemotherapy with respect to progression-free survival (primary endpoint) and overall survival, despite the crossover of 44% of patients in the chemotherapy arm to pembrolizumab.

Success in advanced cancer is all about incremental improvement, even in the era of modern immunotherapy. So this is only one more step on a long road to highly efficacious treatment. And it's worth noting that this biomarker-based patient selection means that two thirds of patients are eliminated right away.

Despite the modest gains made here, the cost of treatment may limit market penetration in some parts of the world.