What the trial was testing
The trial enrolled 520 patients with mesothelioma. The study was sponsored by Canadian Cancer Trials Group and tracked outcomes across the full group of patients who matched the trial's eligibility profile.
It was mid-stage testing (phase 2/3). Trials at this stage are designed to produce evidence regulators and physicians can act on — not just observations to follow up later.
What the results showed
Median survival rose from 16.1 to 17.3 months adding pembrolizumab.
The Lancet · 2023 · NCT02784171
These findings — that median survival on pembrolizumab + chemotherapy vs. chemotherapy alone in mesothelioma — were published in the The Lancet and represent the headline result of the study.
Researchers tracked outcomes across 520 patients enrolled in the trial. The result was consistent enough across the group that the team felt confident reporting it.
What this means for patients
For patients with mesothelioma, this result changes the calculus on what to ask their care team about. Whether it changes day-to-day care depends on factors like disease subtype, prior treatments, and where the patient is in their care journey.
What you can do now
Pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is FDA-approved for mesothelioma when combined with chemotherapy and is available now. The other approved first-line option is the nivolumab + ipilimumab immunotherapy combination. Ask a thoracic oncologist which fits your case.
Eligibility for the treatments mentioned above depends on specific test results and clinical history. Bring this summary, the trial name, and your most recent labs or pathology report to your next visit.
Open mesothelioma trials
dENdritic Cell Therapy Combined With SURgEry in Mesothelioma
The ENSURE trial is an open label, single center, phase 1, feasibility study. Sixteen adult patients diagnosed with resectable epithelioid malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) will be enrolled following first-line chemotherapy. Before standard-of-care chemotherapy, a leukapheresis will be performed and monocytes will be used for differentiation to dendritic cells (DCs) using specific cytokines. Allogeneic tumor lysate (Pheralys) loaded autologous DCs (MesoPher) will be re-injected 3 weeks after completing chemotherapy, 2 times every other week. Four weeks after the first injection with dendritic cell therapy (DCT), patients will undergo extrapleural pleurectomy/decortication (eP/D) surgery and receive three bi-weekly injections with DCT (starting 4 weeks after surgery). In total, five DC vaccinations will be administered. A tumor biopsy will be collected before starting neo-adjuvant DCT.
First Line Sintilimab Combined With Anlotinib and Platinum Doublet Chemotherapy in Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma
This study is a single-arm, open-lable, single-center phase II clinical trial for patients with advanced or metastatic pleural mesothelioma. The aim of this study was to observe and evaluate the efficacy and safety of Sintilimab combined with Anlotinib hydrochloride and platinum-containing dual-agent chemotherapy as first-line therapy in malignant pleural mesothelioma.