Postsurgical Keytruda Has Little Impact on Quality of Life in Melanoma
Source: CureToday September 2024
Health-related quality of life among patients with stage 3 melanoma was not significantly affected after receiving postsurgical Keytruda or placebo.
Receiving Keytruda (pembrolizumab) as adjuvant (after surgery) treatment did not significantly affect health-related quality of life in patients with stage 3 melanoma when compared with placebo (inactive drug).
In the recent KEYNOTE-054 study published in The Lancet, 514 patients with stage 3 melanoma were randomly assigned to receive Keytruda and 505 patients were assigned placebo. At baseline (before patients started treatment in the study), the patients in both groups exceeded the health-related quality of life evaluation by 90%. However, evaluations ranged from 60% to 90% for post-baseline timepoints, the researchers noted.