In this episode of the IJGC podcast, Editor-in-Chief Dr. Pedro Ramirez is joined by Dr. Ramez N. Eskander to discuss NRG-018 pembrolizumab and chemotherapy in uterine cancer. Dr. Eskander is a gynecologic oncologist who specializes in the comprehensive management of female reproductive system cancers, including ovarian, uterine, cervical, vulvar and vaginal cancer. His expertise includes diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, including minimally invasive (robotic) surgery, chemotherapy and novel drugs.

Highlights:

• NRG-GY018 showed that the addition of pembrolizumab to chemotherapy, followed by maintenance pembrolizumab, resulted in a 70% lower risk of disease progression or death in patients in the dMMR cohort and a 46% lower risk in the pMMR cohort than in the placebo group.

• These data suggest that the incorporation of immunotherapy into the first-line treatment of advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer improves oncologic outcomes, regardless of MMR status or histologic findings.

• Previous monotherapy drugs against PD-1 and PD-L1 in recurrent or metastatic pMMR endometrial cancer resulted in only modest improvement.