Lenvatinib + Pembrolizumab Treats Advanced Endometrial Cancer

MONDAY, Jan. 31, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with advanced endometrial cancer, lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab results in significantly longer progression-free and overall survival than the physician's choice of chemotherapy, according to a study published online Jan. 19 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Vicky Makker, M.D., from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and colleagues randomly assigned 827 patients with advanced endometrial cancer (697 with mismatch repair-proficient [pMMR] disease and 130 with mismatch repair-deficient disease) that had progressed or recurred after at least one platinum-based chemotherapy regimen to receive either lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab or chemotherapy of the treating physician's choice (411 and 416 patients, respectively).

The researchers found that longer median progression-free survival occurred with lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab than with chemotherapy (overall: 7.2 versus 3.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.56; pMMR population: 6.6 versus 3.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.60). Longer median overall survival was also seen with lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab versus chemotherapy (overall: 18.3 versus 11.4 months; hazard ratio, 0.62; pMMR population: 17.4 versus 12.0 months; hazard ratio for death, 0.68). Overall, 88.9 and 72.7 percent of patients who received lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab and chemotherapy, respectively, had adverse events of grade 3 or higher.

"These benefits in progression-free survival and overall survival were seen across all evaluated subgroups, including subgroups defined according to less-common yet aggressive histologic features, history of pelvic irradiation, and previous lines of therapy," the authors write.

The study was funded by the manufacturers of lenvatinib (Eisai) and pembrolizumab (Merck Sharp & Dohme).

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