FDA approves adjuvant Keytruda for certain adults, children with stage IIB, IIC melanoma

Source: Healio, December 2021

The FDA approved pembrolizumab as adjuvant therapy for adults and children aged 12 years or older with stage IIB or IIC melanoma after complete resection.

The agency also expanded the indication for adjuvant pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck), an anti-PD-1 therapy, to include children aged 12 years or older with stage III melanoma following complete resection.

“The standard of care for patients with resected stage IIB and IIC melanoma has been observation, despite the fact that for these patients, the risk [for] recurrence is nearly the same as for patients with later-stage disease, for whom treatment is recommended,” Jason J. Luke, MD, FACP, director of the Cancer Immunotherapeutics Center and associate professor of medicine at UPMC Hillman Cancer Center and University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said in a Merck press release.