{"id":920373,"date":"2026-10-04T14:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T14:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/920373\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T14:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T14:36:09","slug":"pembrolizumab-olaparib-delays-ovarian-cancer-progression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/920373\/","title":{"rendered":"Pembrolizumab-Olaparib Delays Ovarian Cancer Progression"},"content":{"rendered":"

PEMBROLIZUMAB combined with chemotherapy followed by maintenance pembrolizumab and olaparib significantly prolonged progression-free survival in patients with newly diagnosed advanced BRCA non-mutated ovarian cancer, according to Phase III findings.<\/p>\n

The ENGOT-OV43\/GOG-3036\/KEYLYNK-001 trial involved 1,367 patients with stage III\u2013IV epithelial ovarian, primary peritoneal, or fallopian tube cancer without a BRCA1\/2 mutation. The combination reduced the risk of disease progression or death compared with chemotherapy-based control treatment.<\/p>\n

Testing Immunotherapy and PARP Inhibition<\/p>\n

Olaparib, a PARP inhibitor, is established as first-line maintenance treatment for some patients with BRCA-mutated ovarian cancer<\/a>. Researchers investigated whether combining PARP inhibition with pembrolizumab could also improve outcomes among patients without BRCA mutations.<\/p>\n

The randomised, double-blind Phase III trial was conducted across 224 gynaecological oncology centres in 22 countries.<\/p>\n

After one lead-in chemotherapy cycle, participants were randomly assigned to pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by pembrolizumab\u2013olaparib maintenance; pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy followed by pembrolizumab\u2013placebo maintenance; or a control regimen of placebo plus chemotherapy followed by placebo maintenance. Bevacizumab could also be administered at investigators\u2019 discretion.<\/p>\n

The median participant age was 61 years, and all participants were female.<\/p>\n

Progression Risk Reduced<\/p>\n

At the first interim analysis, after a median follow-up of 30.1 months, pembrolizumab\u2013olaparib significantly improved progression-free survival among patients with a PD-L1 combined positive score (CPS) of at least 10.<\/p>\n

Compared with the control group, the combination was associated with a 37% lower risk of progression or death in this population (HR: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.49\u20130.80; p<0.0001).<\/p>\n

Across the overall intention-to-treat population, the risk was reduced by 32% (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.58\u20130.81; p<0.0001).<\/p>\n

The benefit remained at the final analysis, after median follow-up reached 49.6 months. The HR was 0.66 among patients with CPS \u226510 and 0.71 across the intention-to-treat population.<\/p>\n

Pembrolizumab without olaparib did not significantly improve progression-free survival in the CPS \u226510 population compared with control (HR: 0.95; 95% CI: 0.77\u20131.19; p=0.33).<\/p>\n

Adverse Events More Frequent With Combination<\/p>\n

Grade 3 or worse treatment-related adverse events occurred in 66% of patients receiving pembrolizumab\u2013olaparib, compared with 56% receiving pembrolizumab and 51% in the control group.<\/p>\n

The most common severe events included neutropenia and anaemia. Serious treatment-related adverse events occurred in 24%, 21%, and 9% of patients, respectively.<\/p>\n

Four treatment-related deaths occurred in the pembrolizumab\u2013olaparib group and one in the pembrolizumab group.<\/p>\n

The investigators concluded that the combination could represent a potential first-line approach for BRCA non-mutated advanced epithelial ovarian cancer, although its increased toxicity remains important when interpreting the benefit.<\/p>\n

Reference<\/p>\n

Garcia-Donas J et al. Chemotherapy with or without pembrolizumab followed by maintenance pembrolizumab with or without olaparib as first-line treatment of patients with advanced BRCA non-mutated epithelial ovarian cancer (ENGOT-OV43\/GOG-3036\/KEYLYNK-001): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet Oncol. 2026. doi:10.1016\/S1470-2045(26)00223-8.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEMBROLIZUMAB combined with chemotherapy followed by maintenance pembrolizumab and olaparib significantly prolonged progression-free survival in patients with newly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":920374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":["post-920373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=920373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/920374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=920373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=920373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=920373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}