A new report suggests that former president Jimmy Carter's melanoma treatment works, this time for hard-to-treat advanced lung cancer. In fact, it provides more benefit than chemotherapy.
The immunotherapy drug Keytruda can extend the life of advanced lung cancer patients by at least 13 months and reduce the risk of dying by 30% for those whose chemotherapy didn't work, Kenneth Frazier, the chief executive officer of Merck shared during his interview with Maria Martimoro of Fox Business Network on Monday, Dec. 21.
Merck is the producer of Keytruda (pembroizumab), a drug that aims to boost the body's immune system and use it to fight cancer cells. The study called Keynote-010 is the first to look into the effectiveness of immunotherapy drug and compare it with standard chemotherapy on non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with PD-L1 of at least 1% and PD-1. At least 1,000 patients who fit the criteria participated in the research.
Both PD-1 and PD-L1 are gene expressions that work together to prevent cancer cell detection with PD-1 turning on PD-L1 whenever immune cells are around. In the process, immune cells are not able to kill these cancer cells. Keytruda works by turning off PD-L1.
Keytruda was thrust into the limelight when Carter credited his cancer's "disappearance" to it. In August, Carter underwent a surgery to remove a liver mass. A few days after, he announced that he already has cancer, which was later confirmed as melanoma, that has metastasized to his liver and brain. On December, however, he released a statement, saying his cancer was already gone.
The apparent success of Keytruda on the president had some of the cancer patients asking for the same as well, so much so that some patients who are under Opdivo, similar type of drug but produced by Bristol-Myers Squibb, wanted to switch to Keytruda.
Last year, Merck's Keytruda had won FDA approval for treatment of advanced melanoma.