Merck's Keytruda Shows Clinical Benefit in Post-Surgery Kidney Cancer Setting

Merck & Co MRK announced first-time results from the pivotal Phase 3 KEYNOTE-564 trial evaluating Keytruda for the potential adjuvant treatment in a subset of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
The trial included RCC patients at intermediate-high or high risk of recurrence following nephrectomy (surgical removal of a kidney) or following nephrectomy and resection of metastatic lesions.
The results will be presented at the virtual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting.
In patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma, Keytruda treatment after surgery slashed the risk of the disease returning or death by 32% compared with placebo.
At the two-year mark, 77.3% of patients who got Keytruda in Phase 3 Keynote-564 trial remained alive and disease-free, compared to 68% in the placebo group.
Overall survival (OS) was too early to determine at the data cutoff. Still, the company did have a “favorable trend” in the early readout, with Keytruda cutting the risk of death by 46% over placebo.
However, the median disease-free survival data were immature at this point.
Related content: Benzinga's Full FDA Calendar.
Price Action: MRK shares closed at $73.91 on Thursday.