Pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy delivers lasting benefit in early-stage NSCLC

Dr Margarita Majem speaks to ecancer about the five-year follow-up results from the KEYNOTE-671 study evaluating perioperative pembrolizumab combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy in patients with resectable early-stage non-small cell lung cancer.

Patients treated with pembrolizumab were significantly more likely to achieve a pathological complete response, and among those who did, long-term outcomes were particularly favourable.

At five years, event-free survival rates remained notably higher compared with chemotherapy alone, demonstrating durable benefit.

These findings reinforce the role of perioperative immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy as a standard of care in early-stage disease and underscore the long-term clinical value of achieving a pathological complete response.