J Gynecol Oncol | Volume 7, Issue 1 | Case Report | Open Access
Panella L*, Rothnie K, Shaw E, Bhana D, Danziger M, Lee T and Kuo DYS
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, United States
Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Northwell Health Cancer Institute, United States
Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, United States
Department of Radiology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, United States
*Correspondance to: Leslie Panella
Fulltext PDFIntroduction: Chemotherapy remains the standard first-line treatment for advanced cervical cancer. The addition of the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab to conventional chemotherapy has been shown to improve both progression-free and overall survival. While pembrolizumab monotherapy has demonstrated activity in previously treated cervical cancer, evidence supporting its use as an initial treatment option for patients who are poor candidates for systemic chemotherapy remains limited. Clinical Case: Here we present a case of a patient with advanced cervical cancer who had a high ECOG performance status score and was not a good candidate for standard chemotherapy. She received palliative radiation treatment and was subsequently treated with pembrolizumab monotherapy for 12 cycles, with significant regression of disease and improvement in quality of life. Discussion: Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as pembrolizumab that target PD-1 and PD-L1 have become important therapeutic options in advanced cervical cancer. Although pembrolizumab has demonstrated safety and efficacy in previously treated cervical cancer, existing studies have rarely included treatment naïve patients or those with poor performance status. This case highlights the potential utility of pembrolizumab monotherapy as a first-line option for patients unable to tolerate systemic chemotherapy, underscoring the need for further research to clarify which patient populations may derive the greatest benefit.
Chemotherapy; Cervical cancer; Pembrolizumab monotherapy.
Panella L, Rothnie K, Shaw E, Bhana D, Danziger M, Lee T, et al. The Use of Pembrolizumab Monotherapy in a Chemotherapy-Naïve Patient with Stage IVB Cervical Cancer: A Case Study. J Gynecol Oncol. 2026; 7(1):1087..