KEYNOTE 087 Phase II study of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL)show up to 83% response rates.- Merck Inc.

Merck Inc. has announced the first-time presentation of findings from KEYNOTE-087, the phase II study investigating the use of Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the company�s anti-PD-1 therapy, as a monotherapy in patients with relapsed or refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). These data are presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago (Abstract #7555).

Results included an analysis of outcome measurements from the study�s three patient cohorts: patients whose disease progressed following an autologous stem cell transplantation and subsequent treatment with brentuximab vedotin, an antibody drug conjugate (Cohort 1); patients who failed salvage chemotherapy and were ineligible for a transplant and whose disease progressed following treatment with brentuximab vedotin (Cohort 2); and patients whose disease progressed after transplant and who did not receive brentuximab vedotin after transplant (Cohort 3). Data showed that the overall response rate (ORR) was more than 70 percent across all three cohorts with the highest ORR, at 83 percent, observed in Cohort 2. Results also included an analysis of patients with primary refractory disease, defined as failure to achieve complete or partial response to first-line treatment. In this patient population, the ORR (by investigator review) was 78 percent. Additionally, 90 to 93 percent of patients experienced a reduction in tumor size across all three cohorts.

Comment: Dr. Craig Moskowitz, clinical director, division of hematologic oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center commented �Recurrence of Hodgkin lymphoma occurs in almost half of patients following autologous stem cell transplantation, and the prognosis for patients relapsing or refractory to second-line chemotherapy and transplant is particularly poor, which means there is a significant need to identify therapeutic options that provide meaningful clinical benefit.� �These early data are encouraging, as they demonstrate high response rates � up to 83 percent � with pembrolizumab in heavily pre-treated patients.