SHAFAQNA- Successes with the anti-PD-1 antibodies pembrolizumab and nivolumab in the second-line treatment of advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have inevitably led to trials in the first-line setting. Results from three such trials were presented to packed crowds at the ESMO 2016 Congress.
In the phase III KEYNOTE-024 trial, pembrolizumab monotherapy was compared with platinum-based doublet chemotherapy in 305 treatment-naive patients with PD-L1 expression on ≥50% of tumour cells. This biomarker threshold has been shown to enrich for responders to pembrolizumab; however, only ~30% of the patients tested expre…