Data from a randomized, open label, phase II/III clinical trial investigating the efficacy of pembrolizumab versus docetaxel in patients with advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer demonstrate a modest, but significant, improvement in overall survival in the pembrolizumab group — although, no improvements in progression-free survival were observed. When tested only in the subgroup of patients in which PD-L1 is detected in at least 50% of tumour cells, however, pembrolizumab resulted in a much greater overall survival benefit, in addition to a significant improvement in progression-free survival, thus demonstrating the increasing importance of careful selection of clinical trial cohorts.
References
Herbst, R. S. et al. Pembrolizumab versus docetaxel for previously treated, PD-L1-positive, advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (KEYNOTE-010): a randomised controlled trial. Lancet http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01281-7
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Sidaway, P. Anti-PD-L1 therapy: patient selection is important. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 13, 134 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2016.7