FDA approves keytruda (pembrolizumab) for melanoma

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new kind of immunotherapy drug to treat melanoma skin cancer. Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is for patients with melanoma that’s advanced or can’t be treated with surgery, and isn’t getting better, even after treatment with other drugs. Keytruda is a type of anti-PD-1 drug. Melanoma cells often have a protein called PD-L1 on their surface that helps them avoid being found and destroyed by the body’s immune system. Drugs that block the PD-L1 protein, or the corresponding PD-1 protein on immune cells, can help the immune system recognize the melanoma cells and attack them. Read more here.