Dr. Choueiri on the Next Generation of Trials in RCC

Toni Choueiri, MD, director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director, Kidney Cancer Center, senior physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Chair and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the next generation of trials in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The next generation of trials should aim to answer whether treatment-naïve patients with advanced RCC should be given the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy), or pembrolizumab (Keytruda) and axitinib (Inlyta)—both of which are indicated as frontline therapy—or whether avelumab (Bavencio) and axitinib should be considered. Only when clinical trials are designed without sunitinib (Sutent) as the comparator arm can these questions be answered, says Choueiri.

There are many studies that are being planned to address this question, and as research in RCC continues to evolve, more treatment options are becoming available, which is prolonging survival in these patients. When Choueiri joined the staff at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2007, median overall survival (OS) was 11 months with RCC. Now, median OS is not being reached at 3 and 4 years.