The phase I CheckMate 016 trial has shown activity of the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. These findings were reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Hammers et al. Study Details In the dose-escalation study, patients were...
In a biomarker-based phase II trial reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Choueiri et al found that the MET tyrosine kinase inhibitor savolitinib was active in MET-driven advanced papillary renal cell cancer. Study Details In the trial, 109 patients with locally advanced or metastatic...
Daniel Heng, MD, MPH, of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre and the University of Calgary, and Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of the City of Hope, discuss key findings presented at ASCO: adjuvant pazopanib vs placebo after nephrectomy in patients with locally advanced disease (the PROTECT Trial), and adjuvant...
Bernard J. Escudier, MD, of Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus, and Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of City of Hope, discuss phase III study findings on adjuvant sunitinib used to treat high-risk renal cell carcinoma, which validate the 16-gene Recurrence Score in patients with stage III disease. (Abstract 4508)
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of City of Hope, and Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, exchange views on the key papers in renal cell carcinoma presented at ASCO’s 2017 nonprostate GU oral abstract session. (Abstracts 4504, 4505, 4506, 4507, 4508)
Primo Lara, MD, of the University of California, Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses three top abstracts on treating advanced renal cell carcinoma with epacadostat, pembrolizumab, atezolizumab, bevacizumab, sunitinib, or pazopanib. (Abstracts 4505, 4507, 4515)
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that surgery could more than double life expectancy for many patients with late-stage kidney cancer, giving them anywhere from 2 to almost 10 years more than they would have without the surgery. A paper published by Zaid et al in The Journal of Urology found...
The latest in a series of studies led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine shows that addition of a widely available, noninvasive imaging test called 99mTc-sestamibi SPECT/CT (single-photon emission computed tomography plus computed tomography) to conventional CT or magnetic resonance imaging...
In a Spanish phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, García-Donas et al found that maintenance therapy with vinflunine improved progression-free survival vs best supportive care alone in patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma with disease control on first-line chemotherapy....
Immunologic changes observed in an early study of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) raised the possibility for a larger clinical study of combination immunotherapy, according to findings reported by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The results of...
In an analysis of the phase III ASSURE trial reported in JAMA Oncology, Haas et al found no disease-free or overall survival benefit of adjuvant sunitinib (Sutent) or sorafenib (Nexavar) vs placebo in a high-risk subset of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma histology and pT3, pT4, or...
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of the City of Hope, summarizes a session he co-chaired on the opportunities and challenges in systemic therapy for advanced renal cancer, including imaging as a biomarker of response and optimal selection of front-line treatments. (General Session 9)
Rana R. McKay, MD, of the University of California, San Diego, discusses study findings on PD-1/PD-L1 responders with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who discontinue therapy for immune-related adverse events. (Abstract 467)
W. Marston Linehan, MD, of the National Cancer Institute, discusses the genetic basis of the different types of kidney cancer, which provides the key to clinical management.
Sumanta K. Pal, MD, of the City of Hope, discusses the evolution of circulating tumor DNA profile from first-line to second-line therapy in metastatic renal cell carcinoma. (Abstract 434)
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings on atezolizumab with or without bevacizumab vs sunitinib in patients with untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma. (Abstract 431)
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses a single-arm biomarker-based study of savolitinib in patients with advanced papillary renal cell cancer. (Abstract 436)
Results from the phase II IMmotion150 study that compared atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) and atezolizumab monotherapy to sunitinib (Sutent) alone in patients with previously untreated, locally advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma were presented at the 2017 Genitourinary...
A new retrospective analysis suggests that immunotherapy may be less effective in patients who receive antibiotics less than a month before starting treatment. In the study, cancer worsened more quickly in such patients than in those who did not receive antibiotics (with median progression-free...
Early findings from a new study appear to challenge the current standard practice for immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy—continuing treatment until cancer worsens. Among patients with advanced kidney cancer who stopped programmed cell death protein 1/programmed cell death ligand 1...
In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Ornstein et al found that an intermittent schedule of sunitinib (Sutent) may be feasible in patients with previously untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Study Details In the study, 37 patients with clear cell metastatic...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Antonio Finelli, MD, of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, and colleagues, ASCO has released a clinical practice guideline on management of small renal masses. The guideline was derived from an expert panel literature search for and...
The first evidence-based consensus statement on cancer immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with the most common type of kidney cancer, renal cell carcinoma, has been published by the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer by Rini et al. The...
A randomized phase II clinical trial evaluating cabozantinib (Cabometyx) compared with standard-of-care sunitinib (Sutent) as first-line therapy for patients with advanced kidney cancer has found the experimental drug reduced the rate of disease progression or death by 34% compared with sunitinib....
In the phase III S-TRAC trial reported at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and in The New England Journal of Medicine by Ravaud et al, adjuvant sunitinib (Sutent) significantly prolonged disease-free survival vs placebo in patients with high-risk renal cell carcinoma after...
In the phase I/II CheckMate 032 trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Sharma et al found that nivolumab (Opdivo) was active in locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma progressing after platinum-based therapy. In the study, 78 patients with urothelial carcinoma of the renal pelvis,...
Cabozantinib (Cabometyx, Cometriq) significantly improves progression-free survival and response rate in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma compared to sunitinib (Sutent), according to research presented by Choueiri et al at the 2016 European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)...
In the phase III IMPRINT trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rini et al found no overall survival benefit of adding the multipeptide cancer vaccine IMA901 to sunitinib (Sutent) in the first-line treatment of locally advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. IMA901 contains 10 tumor-associated ...
A phase III trial of sunitinib (Sutent) has met its primary endpoint of disease-free survival for adjuvant treatment of high-risk renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy, reported Ravaud et al at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2016 Congress in Copenhagen (Abstract LBA11_PR)....
Alain Ravaud, MD, PhD, of Bordeaux University Hospital, discusses in French phase III findings on sunitinib vs placebo as adjuvant treatment for high-risk renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy. (Abstract LBA11)
Alain Ravaud, MD, PhD, of Bordeaux University Hospital, discusses phase III findings on sunitinib vs placebo as adjuvant treatment for high-risk renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy. (Abstract LBA11)
Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses study findings on cabozantinib vs sunitinib as initial targeted therapy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma of poor and intermediate risk. (Abstract LBA30) Follow him on Twitter: @DrChoueiri
A multibasket phase Ib study evaluating the clinical activity, tolerability, and antitumor activity of the cytokine-based immunotherapy AM0010 alone or in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda) has found that in monotherapy, objective responses to AM0010 were ...
The combination of everolimus (Afinitor, Zortress) and bevacizumab (Avastin) was associated with clinical benefit in advanced non–clear cell renal cell carcinoma with a major papillary component, according to a single-center phase II trial reported by Voss et al in the Journal of Clinical...
On September 13, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modified the dosage regimen for nivolumab (Opdivo) for the currently approved indications for renal cell carcinoma, metastatic melanoma, and non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The currently approved recommended dosage...
In a study investigating the clinical and biologic effects of body mass index on treatment outcomes in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, Albiges et al found that obese patients treated with targeted therapy had improved survival and progression-free survival compared with patients with ...
Researchers funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) have shown that when the metabolite fumarate accumulates in a hereditary form of renal cancer, it leads to an epigenetic reprogramming that drives cancer, according to a study published by Sciacovelli et al in Nature. The tumor growth...
In a systematic review and meta-analysis reported in JAMA Oncology, Nishino et al identified the rates of PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) inhibitor–related pneumonitis in patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), renal cell carcinoma, and melanoma. Rates were...
In a phase II trial reported in The Lancet Oncology, Rini et al found that some patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma can safely undergo active surveillance for an extended duration prior to initiation of systemic therapy. Indolent growth of metastases is known to occur in some patients...
Renal cell carcinomas (RCC) positive for the protein programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) from patients who did not respond to treatment with the anti–PD-1 therapeutic nivolumab (Opdivo) had significantly higher expression of genes associated with metabolism, compared with PD-L1–positive...
In a study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Chagtai et al of the International Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) Renal Tumours Study Group found that chromosome 1q gain was associated with poorer event-free survival in patients with Wilms tumor treated with preoperative...
The Children’s Oncology Group found that chromosome 1q gain is associated with poorer event-free and overall survival in patients with favorable-histology Wilms tumor. Gratias et al reported these findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Study Details The study involved analysis of...
In a National Cancer Data Base study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hanna et al found that cytoreductive nephrectomy may improve survival in patients receiving targeted therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Study Details The study involved data from 15,390 patients treated...
As reported by Choueiri et al in The Lancet Oncology, the final results of the phase III METEOR trial indicate significantly improved overall survival with cabozantinib (Cabometyx) vs everolimus (Afinitor) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) that had progressed after previous...
Patients with previously treated advanced renal cell carcinoma receiving nivolumab (Opdivo) in the phase III CheckMate 025 trial had improved health-related quality of life compared with those receiving everolimus (Afinitor), as reported by Cella et al in The Lancet Oncology. Study Details In the ...
In a large randomized study, the immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo), an anti–PD-1 (programmed cell death protein 1) monoclonal antibody, was shown to be a safe and effective therapy for kidney cancer even in patients who continued treatment after their disease progressed. Results ...
David F. McDermott, MD, of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discuss an update on data from phase I and II studies of nivolumab given to patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma, including long-term overall survival and...
On May 13, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved lenvatinib capsules (Lenvima), in combination with everolimus (Afinitor) for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma following one prior antiangiogenic therapy. Lenvatinib was first approved in 2015 for the treatment...
On April 25, 2016, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved cabozantinib (Cabometyx) tablets for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma in patients who have received prior antiangiogenic therapy. Cabozantinib is a dual tyrosine kinase inhibitor of MET and VEGFR2. The...
As reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology by Powles et al, the dual PI3K/mTOR inhibitor apitolisib was inferior to the mTOR inhibitor everolimus (Afinitor) in progression-free survival in a phase II trial in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma progressing on or after...