Bruce Jancin/Frontline Medical News
Dr. Mary L. Disis
“We’re right in that ballpark with advanced triple-negative breast cancer. And in melanoma, where they’re using pembrolizumab in combination with standard therapies, including chemotherapy, they’re seeing response rates of 50%-60%. So let’s not wait. Let’s move this forward so we can benefit our breast cancer patients,” argued Dr. Disis, professor of medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle.
She noted that the 18-week time to response seen in KEYNOTE-012 is consistent with how long T cells take to propagate in vivo to create an antitumor response.
“We’ve got the biology, we’ve got the monotherapy response rates, and we’ve got the toxicities that are seen with other diseases. So I say, onward to the rational combinations, so we can drive that response rate up. I think everyone needs to know about immunotherapy in the treatment of breast cancer. The time is here for us to be able to drive our patients toward a better therapy that will cause long-lasting protective immunity,” she said.
The KEYNOTE-012 study was funded by Merck, which earlier in 2014 received Food and Drug Administration marketing approval for pembrolizumab in the treatment of metastatic and progressive melanoma. Dr. Nanda reported having no financial conflicts.