Though Keytruda did improve outcomes of patients with stage 1B, 2 or 3A non-small cell lung cancer, longer follow-up is still needed - as is a cure for the disease, Herbst noted.

Merck has now added a real doctor to its TV ad for Keytruda (pembrolizumab), the cancer immunotherapeutic. Two new ads – one featuring Dr. Goetz Kloecker, a practicing oncologist, alone and one featuring Dr.

Since then, Theresa has been undetectable for over a year, and she continues treatment with Keytruda, with little to no side effects. Her family remains hopeful and grateful that everything is going well for Theresa and they pray for her continued strength.

Patients receiving Keytruda lived for 10.3 months (median overall survival) compared to 7.4 months with chemotherapy.

KEYTRUDA plus carboplatin-paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel reduced the risk of death by 29% (HR=0.71 [95% CI, 0.59-0.85]) versus chemotherapy alone. The median OS was 17.2 months for the KEYTRUDA plus chemotherapy group versus 11.6 months for the chemotherapy group.

The list price for each indicated dose of KEYTRUDA when given every 3 weeks is $11,115.04. The list price for each indicated dose of KEYTRUDA when given every 6 weeks is $22,230.08. * Most people will not pay the list price, although it may have an impact on your out-of-pocket costs.

While Merck & Co has been responsible for Keytruda's commercial success, the drug was originally developed by a team of Dutch scientists now at Aduro Biotech, which develops immunotherapies for cancer and is also using its technology to target autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Keytruda works by binding to PD-1 and therefore blocking the cancer cells from using their own protein to slot into the same spot and switch off the immune cells. So with Keytruda, the T-cells do their job and effectively attack the cancer. Keytruda is also known as an anti PD-1 immunotherapy.

Half (50%) of the patients who received Keytruda every 3 weeks were alive at 4.1 months, compared to 2.8 months for patients receiving Yervoy. Keytruda was shown to reduce the risk of dying by 31% compared to Yervoy.

Immunotherapy Benefit for Advanced Lung Cancer Continues Beyond 2 Years. Limiting immunotherapy to 2 years doesn't decrease survival odds, but may reduce bothersome side effects and improve quality of life.

Researchers investigated the 5-year outcome of an immunotherapy drug on early-stage lung cancer. 80% of those who took the immunotherapy drug survived after 5 years, whereas survival rates from standard treatments are 36–68%.

Of the patients who completed two years (35 cycles) of treatment with KEYTRUDA plus carboplatin-paclitaxel or nab-paclitaxel (n=55/278), 69.5% were alive at five years, with an ORR of 90.9% (with nine complete responses and 41 partial responses).