Merck's immunotherapy drug, Keytruda, was approved as a monotherapy to treat patients with a type of high-risk bladder cancer, the drugmaker announced Jan. 8.
The type of bladder cancer previously had limited FDA-approved therapies available to treat it, according to Scot Ebbinghaus, MD, vice president of clinical research at Merck. Patients traditionally have had limited nonsurgical options to treat the aggressive form of cancer.
Keytruda works by increasing the immune system's ability to help detect and fight tumor cells. It has been approved to treat a number of other cancers, including lung cancer and melanoma.
Merck warned that inflammatory reactions, which could be severe or fatal, can occur with Keytruda, and it can also cause severe or life-threatening infusion-related reactions.
Read the full news release here.