NICE Nixes Keytruda Combo for Some Endometrial Cancer Patients

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not recommend Merck’s blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in combination with lenvatinib for National Health Service (NHS) use in treating adult patients with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer who have disease progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy and who cannot have surgery or radiotherapy.

NICE acknowledged clinical trial evidence showing that pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib increases the time until the cancer gets worse. However, the agency also noted that while people lived longer with the therapy, it is not clear if the treatment’s effects continue after the end of treatment.

The draft recommendation affects England and Wales, but not Scotland, where the treatment combination is accepted for restricted use.