Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced that new and updated data from six abstracts investigating Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the company’s anti-PD-1 therapy, as both monotherapy and combination therapy, across a range of difficult-to-treat breast cancers, will be presented at the 2017 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS), Dec. 5 – 9. In addition to the presentation of Keytruda data at SABCS, updated data on Lynparza (olaparib), the first-in-class poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitor being co-developed and co-commercialized with AstraZeneca, will be presented.
Keytruda presentations include a Spotlight Session with findings from the phase 2 KEYNOTE-086 trial, Cohort B, investigating Keytruda as a monotherapy in previously untreated patients with metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) whose tumors express PD-L1 (Abstract #PD6-10).
Final results from the phase 1b/2 KEYNOTE-014 (PANACEA) trial investigating Keytruda in combination with trastuzumab in trastuzumab-resistant HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (Abstract #GS2-06); Two new biomarker analyses from the ongoing phase 2 I-SPY 2 trial (Abstract #PD6-08, Abstract #PD6-14); and, Updated data from the phase 1b/2 KEYNOTE-150 (ENHANCE-1) trial investigating Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in combination with Eisai Co., Ltd.’s microtubule dynamics inhibitor, eribulin mesylate (product name: Halaven, “eribulin”), in patients with metastatic TNBC (Abstract #PD6-13).
Data investigating Lynparza (olaparib) as monotherapy will also be presented. Findings include additional data from the pivotal phase 3 OlympiAD trial investigating Lynparza versus chemotherapy in patients with HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and a germline BRCA mutation (Abstract #P5-21-12), as well as a subgroup analysis in Asian patients (Abstract #P5-21-13).
“We have seen significant therapeutic advances over the years in the field of breast cancer; however, there remains significant unmet medical need, particularly in certain categories of the disease,” said Dr. Roy Baynes, senior vice president and head of global clinical development, chief medical officer, Merck Research Laboratories. “Through our comprehensive clinical program studying Keytruda, as well as Lynparza, we hope to bring additional therapeutic benefit to breast cancer patients.”
