At the beginning of January, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the immunotherapy drug Pembrolizumab (Keytruda), in combination with chemoradiotherapy, for the treatment of patients with locally advanced cervical cancer who had not previously received any treatment.
The approval was based on results from a clinical trial in which 596 patients meeting the abovementioned criteria were randomly assigned to receive either Pembrolizumab combined with chemoradiotherapy (study group), or placebo combined with chemoradiotherapy (control group).
At the end of the predetermined follow-up period, results pointed towards a significantly lower risk of disease progression among the study group patients receiving Keytruda, compared to the control group receiving placebo.
Side effects were manageable, generally similar to those observed in other trials of Keytruda.