The FDA approved the injected shape, Keytruda Qlex, for a wide variety of solid tumors that have been treated with the intravenous form of the drug, including certain malignant tumors in the lungs, breasts, colon, head and neck, digestive tract and reproductive system, the FDA said in a press release.
With the injected version, “the main advantage is convenience and time,” explains Pavlos Msaouel, MD, PHD, associate professor at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
What is Keytruda and how does it work?
Keytruda is a type of treatment called immunotherapy that uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer. Keytruda is in a family of immunotherapy drugs called immune control point inhibitors.
The so -called proteins as a control point on immune cells serve as guards who are supposed to prevent foreign invaders from entering healthy cells. Some cancers use these control points to avoid detection. Immunotherapy drugs like Keytruda prevent control points from hiding cancer cells, allowing the immune system to locate and attack tumors.
Keytruda injections can mean less time in treatment rooms
According to Merck, Keytruda injections only take two minutes, against about half an hour for IV infusions.
The shots allow patients to spend less time in treatment rooms because health care providers can prepare and administer them faster, according to Merck. Consequently, the shooting meetings take approximately an hour in total, while the meetings for the infusion take about two hours, by Merck.
“This is important for occupied infusion centers and for patients juggling with work and family,” said Dr. Masouel.
Keytruda Shots works as well as infusions
A clinical trial at a late stage of Keytruda in combination with chemotherapy compared the effects of forms injected with the forms of infusion in patients with metastatic lung cancer not with small cells of stage 4.
The so -called progression survival of progress without progress, or the time that patients live without dying of a cause or worsening of cancer, was around 8.1 months for patients on Keytruda injections, compared to 7.8 months with infusions, revealed this test at an advanced stage.
Just less than half of the patients in this test have experienced side effects, regardless of Keytruda’s shape they received. Among the patients who took Keytruda in combination with chemotherapy, a certain percentage interrupted treatment due to side effects: 8.4% obtaining injections and 8.7% of infusions.
The mortality rates related to treatment were also similar, occurring in 3.6% of patients under injected key and 2.4% with the intravenous form.
Who might and may not prefer injections to infusions
Although convenience can motivate many cancer patients to opt for Keytruda injections, others may not find this a more effective option, explains Msaouel. Some patients – especially those who still need infusions for chemotherapy – may want to continue to receive Keytruda in infusion centers, he said.
These patients can obtain infusions for Keytruda at the same time as chemo infusions, so Keytruda shots would not reduce their total processing time, says Msaouel.
Some patients can be hypersensitive or allergic to Berahyaluronidase Alfa, a component in the shots that allows the drug to be absorbed by the skin, says Msaouel. Although this problem is rare, people allergic to bees as wasps are more likely to fall into this category and who may want to receive intravenous Keytruda, advises Msaouel.
“The preference of patients is important and the two routes can be appropriate,” explains Masouel. “Which should change (or not) will be an individual decision based on medical history, logistics and preferences after a balanced conversation with the care team.”
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