Immunotherapy drug holds promise for advanced endometrial cancer

A cancer immunotherapy drug currently approved by the U.

For the study, researchers recruited 90 women diagnosed with recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer to determine whether the drug pembrolizumab (marketed as Keytruda) could be an effective treatment for this type of MMR deficiency (dMMR).

Pembrolizumab is a cancer immunotherapy that prevents the immune system from recognizing and destroying cancer cells by inhibiting certain cellular receptors

In the study, researchers found that 48 percent of patients with advanced endometrial cancer experienced complete or partial remission

"These findings suggest that this is a long-term benefit for

Clinical trials evaluating pembrolizumab for early-stage disease are currently underway

The international research team was published online January 6, 2022 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology

Endometrial cancer is the second most common cancer in women worldwide, and its incidence has been increasing

Previous studies have shown that up to 31 percent of endometrial cancer patients have DNA structural changes known as microsatellite instability (MSI-H) and deficiency in mismatch repair (dMMR)

"By using this targeted drug, we can reset the cellular machinery to allow the immune system to reactivate and attack cancer cells," Dr.

Prior to the data in this study, there was no acceptable standard-of-care second-line treatment regimen for patients with endometrial cancer with MSI-H/dmmr-positive tumors; however, the researchers noted that the The overall response rate in this study is very high compared to the expected response rate of 10-15%