Another win for combined target-IO Rx with meaningful OS difference and reasonable/expected tolerability.
Standard therapy for advanced endometrial cancer after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy remains unclear.
In this phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned, in a 1:1 ratio, patients with advanced endometrial cancer who had previously received at least one platinum-based chemotherapy regimen to receive either lenvatinib (20 mg, administered orally once daily) plus pembrolizumab (200 mg, administered intravenously every 3 weeks) or chemotherapy of the treating physician’s choice (doxorubicin at 60 mg per square meter of body-surface area, administered intravenously every 3 weeks, or paclitaxel at 80 mg per square meter, administered intravenously weekly [with a cycle of 3 weeks on and 1 week off]). The two primary end points were progression-free survival as assessed on blinded independent central review according to the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, version 1.1, and overall survival. The end points were evaluated in patients with mismatch repair–proficient (pMMR) disease and in all patients. Safety was also assessed.
A total of 827 patients (697 with pMMR disease and 130 with mismatch repair–deficient disease) were randomly assigned to receive lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab (411 patients) or chemotherapy (416 patients). The median progression-free survival was longer with lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab than with chemotherapy (pMMR population: 6.6 vs. 3.8 months; hazard ratio for progression or death, 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.50 to 0.72; P<0.001; overall: 7.2 vs. 3.8 months; hazard ratio, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.66; P<0.001). The median overall survival was longer with lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab than with chemotherapy (pMMR population: 17.4 vs. 12.0 months; hazard ratio for death, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.56 to 0.84; P<0.001; overall: 18.3 vs. 11.4 months; hazard ratio, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.51 to 0.75; P<0.001). Adverse events of grade 3 or higher occurred in 88.9% of the patients who received lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab and in 72.7% of those who received chemotherapy.
Lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab led to significantly longer progression-free survival and overall survival than chemotherapy among patients with advanced endometrial cancer. (Funded by Eisai and Merck Sharp and Dohme [a subsidiary of Merck]; Study 309–KEYNOTE-775 ClinicalTrials.gov number)
For patients with local recurrences of endometrial cancer, XRT alone is extremely effective, and the addition of cisplatin does not offer any benefit while increasing toxicity. These patients with low-grade and vaginal recurrences have a good prognosis and most should be treated with XRT alone.
Initial results from the DUO-E study in metastatic endometrial cancer. The preliminary report suggests that maintenance durvalumab and maintenance durvalumab + olaparib were superior to standard observation after systemic carbo/taxol. As the trial data matures, the question will be: is this in all patients or driven by those with dMMR or HDR mutations?
This is another possibility for maintenance therapy. It will require further study.
An interesting study where the authors performed a post hoc analysis of randomized trials using molecular classification of endometrial cancers. There was good evidence to omit RT for those with POLE mutations and def-MMR. There seems to be a higher degree of benefit in those with a p53 mutation.
Large phase III study of carbo/taxol+pembro x 6 followed by pembro alone x 14 cycles in metastatic endometrial cancer. There was a benefit in both pMMR and dMMR patients, although the magnitude was unsurprisingly higher in those with dMMR. OS results are still pending, and carcinosarcoma-type histology was excluded. This combination has been approved and is on NCCN as a cat-1 recommendation.
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