Introduction: Despite progress on prevention and treatment of cervical cancer, global morbidity and mortality remain high. Immunotherapy, in conjunction with standard chemotherapy, presents an opportunity for further benefit.
Areas covered: Here we report the pharmacologic properties, evidence for clinical efficacy, safety, and tolerability of pembrolizumab in addition to standard chemotherapy with and without bevacizumab for treatment of advanced or recurrent cervical cancer.
Expert opinion: In patients with progressive, recurrent, or metastatic PD-L1 expressing cervical cancer, without contraindication to anti-VEGF therapy, the use of pembrolizumab with bevacizumab and standard chemotherapy with carboplatin and paclitaxel is warranted. There is no evidence to support the use of pembrolizumab for this population broadly, and no evidence to support its use in PD-L1 non-expressing tumors.
Keywords: Cervical cancer; PD-1; bevacizumab; immune checkpoint inhibitor; pembrolizumab.