(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday approved the expanded use of Merck & Co’s blockbuster immunotherapy Keytruda in combination with chemoradiotherapy to treat newly diagnosed patients with a type of advanced cervical cancer.
The Keytruda combination was approved for patients with cervical cancer who had not previously received surgery, radiation, or systemic therapy, FDA said.
Keytruda is already approved as a combination therapy as well as a monotherapy to treat patients with two other types of cervical cancers.
Merck’s top-selling drug, Keytruda, helps the body’s own immune system fend off cancer by blocking a protein called PD-1. It has been approved to treat more than ten kinds of cancer, including those of lung and skin.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
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