Dr Schmid talks to ecancer at ESMO 2024 about results from the phase 3 KEYNOTE-522 trial which showed that anti-PD-1 therapy pembrolizumab combined with chemotherapy as a pre-operative treatment and continued as a single agent post-surgery, improves overall survival for patients with high-risk early-stage triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

With a median follow-up of 75.1 months, the pembrolizumab regimen reduced the risk of death by 34% compared to the chemotherapy-placebo regimen. The five-year OS rate was 86.6% for patients on pembrolizumab versus 81.7% for those on placebo.

The safety profile remained consistent with previous studies.