SAN ANTONIO—Merck & Co.'s Keytruda and Roche's Tecentriq are battling for immuno-oncology supremacy in an ever-growing range of indications. But in hard-to-treat triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), Keytruda's latest data came out on top.
Adding Keytruda to standard-of-care chemotherapy ahead of surgery delivered pathologic complete responses—a lack of cancer cells in surgically removed tissue––in 64.8% of newly diagnosed TNBC patients whose disease had spread to the lymph nodes, a new subanalysis shows. Just 44.1% of those treated with chemo alone could say the same.
Drawn from Keytruda's phase 3 Keynote-522 study, the subgroup data were presented Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. They back up top-line numbers released in September showing a Keytruda-chemo combo achieved a pathologic complete response in 64.8% of the study's patients compared with 51.2% on chemo alone.
Overall, patients in the Keynote-522 study also showed a 37% risk reduction in disease recurrence after surgery compared with solo chemo, a result that wasn't statistically significant.
