‘New day’ in lung cancer as Merck drug shines, works with chemo

By Ben Hirschler COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – Merck & Co scored a double hit on Sunday with new clinical data showing its Keytruda immunotherapy offered big benefits in previously untreated lung cancer patients, either when given on its own or with chemotherapy. As a monotherapy, Keytruda halved the risk of disease progression and cut overall deaths by 40 percent compared to chemotherapy alone in pre-selected patients whose tumors had been tested using a biomarker. It’s a new day for lung cancer treatment,” Stefan Zimmermann of Lausanne’s University Hospital told reporters at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) congress as the results were presented.

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‘New day’ in lung cancer as Merck drug shines, works with chemo