Pembrolizumab for Refractory Gastric or Gastroesophageal Junction Cancer

Response immune checkpoint inhibitors have shown promising activity across a broad spectrum of solid tumor malignancies. The immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab is now approved for use in chemotherapy-refractory gastrointestinal cancers that have microsatellite instability or mutation in DNA mismatch proteins.

Now, investigators have conducted an industry-supported, international, single-arm, open-label, phase II cohort study (KEYNOTE-059) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of pembrolizumab therapy in 259 patients with chemotherapy-refractory gastric or gastroesophageal junction adenocarcinoma. Of these patients, approximately three quarters were male, half were treated in the U.S., half had gastric primaries, half had gastroesophagea…