Health-related quality of life in KEYNOTE-826

In the multinational phase 3 KEYNOTE-826 study, the addition of pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1) to chemotherapy with or without pembrolizumab with or without bevacizumab improved overall survival and progression-free survival versus placebo plus chemotherapy with or without bevacizumab, with manageable toxicity, in patients with persistent, recurrent, or metastatich cervical cancer. A prespecified secondary endpoint of the study was health-related quality of life (HRQOL). HRQOL analysis found that addition of pembrolizumab did not negatively affect HRQOL. The median time to true deterioration of PRO scores was longer in the pembrolizumab-combination group than in the placebo-combination group. The authors conclude that these data support the benefit and the value of immunotherapy in patients with recurrent, persistent, or metastatic cervical cancer.