The phase III KEYNOTE-177 study demonstrated that front-line therapy with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) doubled progression-free survival (PFS) versus standard of care chemotherapy in patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).1
The randomized, open-label, phase III trial, presented during a 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program press briefing, is the first in which pembrolizumab has been shown to benefit these patients when used as a front-line therapy.
“These long-awaited trial results will change clinical practice,” lead author Thierry André, MD, of the Sorbonne Université and Hôpital Saint Antoine in Paris, said in an ASCO-issued press release.2 “Pembrolizumab works in non-randomized studies in this group of patients with advanced disease. This randomized study…
