Immunotherapy for the treatment of metastatic small cell lung cancer: Focus on pembrolizumab.
Andreas KoulourisGiannis MountziosPublished in: Expert review of clinical pharmacology (2021)
Pembrolizumab shows an excellent toxicity profile in recent studies, and significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) but not overall survival (OS) in the phase III clinical trial KN604, in contrast to atezolizumab and durvalumab. The latter two agents have already been approved and incorporated in the daily clinical practice. Further research should be conducted so that phase III clinical trials can validate the potential clinical benefit of this checkpoint inhibitor in combination with other active agents and establish its role in the metastatic setting of SCLC.
Keyphrases
- phase iii
- clinical trial
- free survival
- small cell lung cancer
- open label
- phase ii
- clinical practice
- double blind
- squamous cell carcinoma
- advanced non small cell lung cancer
- brain metastases
- dna damage
- placebo controlled
- study protocol
- magnetic resonance
- physical activity
- magnetic resonance imaging
- climate change
- risk assessment
- epidermal growth factor receptor