In the bat­tle against kid­ney can­cer, Mer­ck­'s key­stone im­munother­a­py Keytru­da edges in front

Mer­ck $MRK may not just have a leg up over Bris­tol-My­ers Squibb $BMY in the lu­cra­tive field of lung can­cer. It looks like the com­pa­ny’s block­buster check­point in­hibitor Keytru­da — large­ly con­sid­ered the pre­em­i­nent im­munother­a­py — is on its way to es­tab­lish­ing its edge in re­nal can­cer. Ahead of the Gen­i­touri­nary (GU) Can­cers Sym­po­sium lat­er this week, an ab­stract de­tail­ing the re­sults of a piv­otal study test­ing a Keytru­da com­bi­na­tion in pre­vi­ous­ly un­treat­ed re­nal cell car­ci­no­ma (RCC) pa­tients ce­ment­ed the PD-1 drug’s lead­ing sta­tus.

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