Post-Surgery Immunotherapy Boosts Survival Among Kidney Cancer Survivors: Study

In a groundbreaking development for kidney cancer treatment, a phase 3 clinical trial has unveiled promising results. The study, known as KEYNOTE-564, has demonstrated that administering pembrolizumab as an adjuvant therapy post-surgery significantly improves overall survival rates in patients with clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma (ccRCC) at high risk for recurrence.

Lead investigator Dr. Toni Choueiri of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute expressed the significance of the findings, stating, "We can now tell our patients that pembrolizumab after surgery not only delays recurrences but also helps them live longer."

Published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, the study enrolled 994 patients across numerous international sites. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either pembrolizumab or a placebo following nephrectomy. Pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy medication, targets a molecular pathway utilized by cancer cells to evade the body's immune system, thereby empowering the immune system to combat tumors effectively.

Dr. Choueiri, who presented the findings at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancer Symposium, highlighted the historical context of the research. "Since 1973, more than 12,000 patients with kidney cancer participated in adjuvant studies versus a control arm and none of the studies showed the experimental arm extends lives until now with the KEYNOTE-564 study," he noted. "We showed pembrolizumab extends survival. It doesn't only delay recurrence."

This breakthrough marks the first time in 50 years that an adjuvant therapy has demonstrated improved overall survival in kidney cancer patients, offering new hope for those at risk of recurrence after surgery.

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