Key clinical point : Adjuvant pembrolizumab boosts disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with early-stage non–small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) after complete resection.
Major finding : DFS was 53.6 months in the pembrolizumab group vs. 42.0 months in the placebo group (hazard ratio 0.76; P = .0014). The DFS benefit was generally consistent across patients with programmed death ligand-1 tumor proportion score of <1%, 1%-49%, and ≥50%.
Study details : The data come from an interim analysis of the phase 3 PEARLS/KEYNOTE-091 trial, in which 1177 adults with stage IB, II, or IIIA NSCLC were randomly assigned to receive 200 mg pembrolizumab (n = 590) or placebo (n = 587) every 3 weeks.
Disclosures: The trial was funded by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp. L Paz-Ares, MER O’Brien, U Dafni, K Oselin, D Isla, A Martinez-Marti, M Faehling, M Tsuboi, K Nakagawa, J Yang, SM Keller, RA Stahel, S Peters, and B Besse reported ties with one or more pharmaceutical companies, including Merck Sharp & Dohme. The other authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Source: Paz-Ares L et al. VP3-2022: Pembrolizumab (pembro) versus placebo for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following complete resection and adjuvant chemotherapy (chemo) when indicated: Randomized, triple-blind, phase III EORTC-1416-LCG/ETOP 8-15 – PEARLS/KEYNOTE-091 study. Ann Oncol. 2022;33(4):451-453 (Mar 17). Doi: 10.1016/j.annonc.2022.02.224