Pembrolizumab for first-line treatment of advanced unresectable or metastatic esophageal or gastroesophageal junction cancer.

ABSTRACT: Esophageal cancer (EC) is the seventh most common malignancy worldwide. Although systemic chemotherapy is the standard treatment for advanced EC, the available cytotoxic agents have limited efficacy. Pembrolizumab, a humanized monoclonal immunoglobulin G4 antibody that inhibits programmed cell death protein 1, has recently been developed for the treatment of patients with advanced EC. In the KEYNOTE-181 trial, pembrolizumab achieved a clinical meaningful overall survival benefit over chemotherapy alone when used as second-line treatment in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) who had a combined positive score ⩾10 for expression of programmed death ligand 1. Furthermore, KEYNOTE-590 showed that pembrolizumab + chemotherapy was more effective than chemotherapy alone as fir

SUBMITTER: Hirose T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9837289 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature