Merck announces results from KEYNOTE-671 trial at ESMO Congress

Merck announced results from the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-671 trial evaluating Keytruda, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, as a perioperative treatment regimen, which includes treatment before surgery and after surgery, for patients with resectable stage II, IIIA or IIIB non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC. These late-breaking data are being presented for the first time during a proffered paper session at the European Society for Medical Oncology, or ESMO, Congress 2023. At the trial’s prespecified second interim analysis with a median follow-up of 36.6 months, neoadjuvant Keytruda plus chemotherapy followed by Keytruda as a single agent after surgical resection significantly improved overall survival, or OS, reducing the risk of death by 28%; one-sided in patients with resectable stage II, IIIA or IIIB NSCLC versus neoadjuvant placebo plus chemotherapy followed by adjuvant placebo, regardless of PD-L1 expression. For patients who received the Keytruda-based regimen, median OS was not reached versus 52.4 months for patients who received the chemotherapy-placebo regimen. The 36-month OS rates were 71.3% for patients who received the Keytruda-based regimen versus 64.0% for patients who received the chemotherapy-placebo regimen.