Advanced cervical cancer
KEYTRUDA OR KEYTRUDA QLEX ALONE AFTER CHEMOTHERAPY
Understanding treatment and clinical trial results

Treatment overview for KEYTRUDA and KEYTRUDA QLEX
KEYTRUDA and KEYTRUDA QLEX are prescription medicines used to treat a kind of cancer called cervical cancer. KEYTRUDA or KEYTRUDA QLEX may be used alone when your cervical cancer:
- has returned, or has spread (advanced cervical cancer), and
- you have received chemotherapy, and it did not work or is no longer working, and
- your tumor tests positive for “PD-L1.”
It is not known if KEYTRUDA and KEYTRUDA QLEX are safe and effective for this use in children.
PD‑L1 = programmed death ligand 1.
KEYTRUDA or KEYTRUDA QLEX may be part of your treatment plan
No one is prepared to hear the word cancer. Learning more about your diagnosis and treatment can make a difference. The information below can help you understand how your treatment works. Remember, you have a voice in your care.
KEYTRUDA or KEYTRUDA QLEX alone
KEYTRUDA and KEYTRUDA QLEX are a type of therapy called immunotherapy. Immunotherapy is different from chemotherapy. Instead of attacking cancer cells directly, immunotherapy helps your immune system do what it is designed to do: find and fight cancer cells. KEYTRUDA and KEYTRUDA QLEX can cause your immune system to attack normal organs and tissues in any area of your body and can affect the way they work. These problems can sometimes become severe or life-threatening and can lead to death. You can have more than one of these problems at the same time. These problems may happen anytime during treatment or even after your treatment has ended.
Understanding the need for biomarker testing
Biomarker testing for PD-L1 may help determine your treatment options
Discover what PD-L1 is and how testing for this biomarker could help determine if KEYTRUDA or KEYTRUDA QLEX may fit into your advanced cervical cancer treatment plan.
PD-L1 = programmed death ligand 1.
Clinical Trial Results
Based on a KEYTRUDA QLEX study, the results were similar to KEYTRUDA
The effectiveness of KEYTRUDA QLEX for its approved uses has been shown based on data from clinical trials. In one of these trials, patients with a different type of cancer* received either KEYTRUDA QLEX or KEYTRUDA. This study showed these groups had similar amounts of medicine in their blood, with no notable differences in how well the medicines worked or in their safety. The effectiveness of KEYTRUDA QLEX is also based on clinical trials of KEYTRUDA for each of the approved uses.
*Advanced non–small cell lung cancer.
KEYTRUDA may help shrink tumors
These results are from a clinical trial, which included 98 people with advanced cervical cancer that had either spread or come back after chemotherapy, when chemotherapy did not work or was no longer working. All of these people were treated with KEYTRUDA 200 mg every 3 weeks.
Among the 98 people, 77 had tumors that expressed PD-L1 with a combined positive score of greater than or equal to 1, as determined by an FDA-authorized test. In advanced cervical cancer, this biomarker test can help determine a person’s likelihood of responding to KEYTRUDA—a PD-1 inhibitor.
Before study entry, these 77 people were treated with at least 1 chemotherapy treatment after their cancer had spread.
PD-L1 = programmed death ligand 1.
PD-1 = programmed death receptor-1.
14.3% of 77 people responded to KEYTRUDA and had tumors either partially or completely shrink
There were no responses to therapy in people whose tumors did not express PD-L1 (combined positive score of less than 1).
14.3 %
of 77 people whose tumors expressed PD-L1 (combined positive score of greater than or equal to 1)
2.6%
of 77 people were alive and had tumors disappear completely (complete response)
11.7%
of 77 people were alive and had tumors partially shrink (partial response)
91% of 77 people responded to KEYTRUDA and had an ongoing response for 6 months or longer
The length of time these people responded to KEYTRUDA ranged from 4.1 to 18.6+ months.†
Median follow-up time was 11.7 months (range 0.6 to 22.7 months).
†Based on patients (n=11) with a response by independent review.
+ indicates an ongoing response.
Understanding different types of results
There’s a lot to take in when learning about your diagnosis. And several terms your doctor may use to talk about your treatment goals are important to understand.
Getting tumors to shrink
One goal of treatment is to have your tumors shrink (get smaller) or disappear. Your doctor may refer to this as objective response rate, or ORR. When a tumor becomes smaller, it is called a partial response. When a tumor disappears, it is called a complete response.
Time responding to treatment
Your doctor may also measure the duration of response (DOR), which is how long you respond to treatment until the time that you are no longer responding.