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Chemotherapy for patients with metastatic gastric cancer achieves a median survival of less than 1 year. Newer agents such as trastuzumab in the first-line treatment of HER2-positive disease and ramucirumab in combination with second-line chemotherapy modestly improve response and survival. Treatment of chemotherapy refractory disease, however, represents an unmet need.
Investigators now report the results of an industry-sponsored, international, multicenter, single-arm, phase Ib trial of the anti–PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab (10 mg/kg every 2 weeks) in metastatic gastric cancer patients with immunohistochemistry-positive staining for PD-L1 in either tumor or stroma. PD-L1 positivity was seen in 40% of 162 patients screened. Of 39 enrolled pa…