By Stephen Nakrosis 
 

Merck (MRK) on Thursday said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an expanded label for Keytruda as monotherapy for the first-line treatment of certain patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer.

The approval is based on results from the Phase 3 KEYNOTE-042 trial, in which Keytruda monotherapy demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in overall survival compared with chemotherapy alone, the company said.

Keytruda works by increasing the ability of the body's immune system to help detect and fight tumor cells, Merck said.

 

Write to Stephen Nakrosis at stephen.nakrosis@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 11, 2019 18:22 ET (22:22 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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