Early Data Presented for Lenvatinib and Pembrolizumab in Thyroid Cancer

Christine Dierks, MD, senior physician at the University Hospital Freilburg in Germany, discusses the early data from a study looking at the combination of lenvatinib (Lenvima) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with metastatic anaplastic or poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma.

This trial was the same drug combination and patient population as the phase 2 ATLEP study that Dierks was a part of. Similarly, patients had previously treated disease with multiple therapies, such as chemotherapy, except for lenvatinib and pembrolizumab.

At the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020, the data for the first 20 patients after 3 months was presented and the rest will not come out for a long period of time, according to Dierks. The response rate after 3 months was 30% and the best overall for patients was 50%, including some patients who are 9 months into the regimen. She says the overall response is slowly improving over time as patients go further on therapy.

The time to response with the combination is slow and complete remission rates were seen in 8 patients and the first complete remission was seen after 11 months of treatment. Dierks believes that patients have to stay on therapy for a long period of time to achieve complete response.

<< View more resources and information in thyroid cancer​