- Home
- Medical news & Guidelines
- Anesthesiology
- Cardiology and CTVS
- Critical Care
- Dentistry
- Dermatology
- Diabetes and Endocrinology
- ENT
- Gastroenterology
- Medicine
- Nephrology
- Neurology
- Obstretics-Gynaecology
- Oncology
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopaedics
- Pediatrics-Neonatology
- Psychiatry
- Pulmonology
- Radiology
- Surgery
- Urology
- Laboratory Medicine
- Diet
- Nursing
- Paramedical
- Physiotherapy
- Health news
- Fact Check
- Bone Health Fact Check
- Brain Health Fact Check
- Cancer Related Fact Check
- Child Care Fact Check
- Dental and oral health fact check
- Diabetes and metabolic health fact check
- Diet and Nutrition Fact Check
- Eye and ENT Care Fact Check
- Fitness fact check
- Gut health fact check
- Heart health fact check
- Kidney health fact check
- Medical education fact check
- Men's health fact check
- Respiratory fact check
- Skin and hair care fact check
- Vaccine and Immunization fact check
- Women's health fact check
- AYUSH
- State News
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- Andhra Pradesh
- Arunachal Pradesh
- Assam
- Bihar
- Chandigarh
- Chattisgarh
- Dadra and Nagar Haveli
- Daman and Diu
- Delhi
- Goa
- Gujarat
- Haryana
- Himachal Pradesh
- Jammu & Kashmir
- Jharkhand
- Karnataka
- Kerala
- Ladakh
- Lakshadweep
- Madhya Pradesh
- Maharashtra
- Manipur
- Meghalaya
- Mizoram
- Nagaland
- Odisha
- Puducherry
- Punjab
- Rajasthan
- Sikkim
- Tamil Nadu
- Telangana
- Tripura
- Uttar Pradesh
- Uttrakhand
- West Bengal
- Medical Education
- Industry
Merck gets positive EU CHMP opinions for Keytruda regimens for patients with two types of Gynecologic cancers
Rahway: Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, has announced that the European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) adopted positive opinions recommending approval of KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, for two indications in gynecologic cancers.
The first opinion recommends the approval of KEYTRUDA in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by KEYTRUDA as a single agent, for the first-line treatment of adult patients with primary advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma who are candidates for systemic therapy. The second positive opinion recommends the approval of KEYTRUDA in combination with chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for the treatment of FIGO (International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) 2014 Stage III-IVA locally advanced cervical cancer in adults who have not received prior definitive therapy.
The CHMP’s recommendations will now be reviewed by the European Commission for marketing authorization in the European Union (EU), and final decisions are expected in the fourth quarter of 2024.
“At Merck, we are deeply committed to expanding the role of KEYTRUDA to improve outcomes for more patients facing difficult-to-treat gynecologic cancers as we work to address the impact of women’s cancers around the world,” said Dr. Gursel Aktan, vice president, global clinical development, Merck Research Laboratories. “These positive CHMP opinions bring us one step closer to providing new immunotherapy-based regimens to more patients with endometrial and cervical cancer in the European Union who may benefit. We look forward to the European Commission’s decisions.”
The recommendation in primary advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma is based on the NRG-GY018 trial, also known as KEYNOTE-868, evaluating KEYTRUDA in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by KEYTRUDA as a single agent. In this study, the KEYTRUDA-based regimen demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) versus placebo plus carboplatin and paclitaxel. If approved, this would mark the third indication for KEYTRUDA in endometrial cancer in Europe.
KEYTRUDA plus LENVIMA (lenvatinib) was approved in November 2021 for the treatment of advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma in adults who have disease progression on or following prior treatment with a platinum‑containing therapy in any setting and who are not candidates for curative surgery or radiation, and KEYTRUDA monotherapy was approved in April 2022 for these patients who have microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or deficient mismatch repair (dMMR) tumors. In June 2024 , KEYTRUDA in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, followed by KEYTRUDA as a single agent, was approved in the U.S. for the treatment of adult patients with primary advanced or recurrent endometrial carcinoma.
The recommendation in newly diagnosed patients with FIGO 2014 Stage III-IVA locally advanced cervical cancer is based on the KEYNOTE-A18 trial, also known as ENGOT-cx11/GOG-3047, in which KEYTRUDA in combination with concurrent CRT demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in overall survival (OS) and PFS versus CRT alone. If approved, this would mark the second indication for KEYTRUDA in cervical cancer in Europe. KEYTRUDA plus chemotherapy, with or without bevacizumab, was approved in April 2022 for the treatment of persistent, recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer in adults whose tumors express PD-L1 (Combined Positive Score [CPS] ≥1). In January 2024 , KEYTRUDA in combination with CRT was approved in the U.S. for the treatment of patients with FIGO 2014 Stage III-IVA cervical cancer.
Ruchika Sharma joined Medical Dialogue as an Correspondent for the Business Section in 2019. She covers all the updates in the Pharmaceutical field, Policy, Insurance, Business Healthcare, Medical News, Health News, Pharma News, Healthcare and Investment. She has completed her B.Com from Delhi University and then pursued postgraduation in M.Com. She can be contacted at editorial@medicaldialogues.in Contact no. 011-43720751
Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751