KEYTRUDA Approved for First-Line Treatment of Stage 3 and Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma in Patients Whose Tumors Express PD-L1 (Tumor Proportion Score [TPS] ≥1%)

Dr. Gilberto Lopes, Associate Director for Global Oncology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, discusses the recent (Apr 2019) FDA regulatory update that approved KEYTRUDA for the first-line treatment of patients with stage III NSCLC (non-small cell lung carcinoma) who are not candidates for surgical resection or definitive chemoradiation, or metastatic NSCLC, and whose tumors express PD-L1 [tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥1%] as determined by an FDA-approved test, with no EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations.

Gilberto Lopes, a medical oncologist, is the medical director for international programs and associate director for Global Oncology at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and associate professor at the Miller School of Medicine; he also serves as Editor-in-Chief for the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Journal of Global Oncology. He previously worked at the Johns Hopkins University and was chief medical and scientific officer for the Oncoclinicas Group, the largest oncology provider in Latin America with 35 clinics and more than 300 oncologists in nine states in Brazil. His overarching mission is to improve cancer care and control around the world. As a lead investigator in the study KEYNOTE-042, Gilberto presented the results at ASCO’s plenary session in 2018, leading to FDA extension of approval for pembrolizumab in advanced lung cancer.

Dr. Lopes has published more than 120 papers in journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Cancer, Nature Reviews, Lancet, Lancet Oncology and Health Affairs. In addition to delivering lectures around the world, he has been principal, co-Principal Investigator or steering committee member in more than 100 studies and clinical trials.

Dr. Lopes is or has been a committee member for the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC), the European Society of Medical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), as well as an executive board member for the Latin American Cooperative Oncology Group (LACOG).