NICE rejects Keytruda(pembrolizumab) as first line therapy to treat metastatic non small cell lung cancer.- Merck Inc.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in draft guidelines rejects Keytruda (pembrolizumab ) from Merck Inc., for untreated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in adults whose tumours express PD-L1 with at least a 50 percent tumour proportion score and have no epidermal growth factor receptor- or anaplastic lymphoma kinase-positive mutations.
The Committee concluded that although there was sufficient evidence that Keytruda (pembrolizumab) had an important extension-to-life benefit in people with untreated stage IV metastatic PD-L1-positive NSCLC compared with standard of care, the magnitude of the overall survival gain was uncertain because the data is immature.
Comment:NICE said that Keytruda gives on average 29 months of extra life, at least three months more than standard chemotherapy treatment, but could not be sure about these figures because of uncertainties in the data.
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