Zev A. Wainberg, MD, Highlights the Rationale for Examining Long-Term Data From Pembrolizumab/Chemo in Advanced Gastric/GEJ Adenocarcinoma

In an interview with CancerNetwork® during the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal (GI) Cancer Symposium, Zev A. Wainberg, MD, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and co-director of the GI Oncology Program at UCLA, highlighted the rationale for assessing the use of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) alone and in combination with chemotherapy for patients with advanced gastric and gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma in the phase 3 KEYNOTE-062 trial (NCT02494583). Moreover, he discussed the necessity of long-term follow up data for this patient population.

Transcript:

The KEYNOTE-062 trial was launched a relatively long time ago in the world of immunotherapy in gastric cancer—about 5 years ago—in the hopes of determining the role of either pembrolizumab with chemotherapy or pembrolizumab by itself in newly diagnosed patients with gastric adenocarcinoma. Since then, there have been multiple other studies [that] have shed additional light on this topic. But this was probably the first one of [this] size to be launched to look at the role of a PD-1 inhibitor in frontline metastatic gastric cancer. The update [takes place] 2 years after the publication. Long term follow-up studies are usually done to see if there's any hint of change in efficacy or safety signals or anything like that over a 2 year period.

Reference

Wainberg ZA, Shitara K, Van Cutsem E, et al. Pembrolizumab with or without chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone for patients with PD-L1–positive advanced gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma: Update from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-062 trial. Presented at 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium. January 20-22, 2022. Abstract 243.