Pembrolizumab monotherapy appeared safe and induced durable antitumor responses in patients with advanced cervical cancer, according to interim results of the phase 2 KEYNOTE-158 study published in Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Based on these results, the FDA granted accelerated approval of pembrolizumab (Keytruda, Merck) for patients with advanced PD-L1-positive cervical cancer whose disease progressed during or after chemotherapy.