Dr. Hammers on Investigational Strategies to Inflame Tumors in RCC

Hans Hammers, MD, PhD, associate professor, Internal Medicine, Eugene P. Frenkel, MD, Scholar in Clinical Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses investigational strategies that are being used to inflame tumors in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Patients with immunologically “cold” tumors do not respond to checkpoint inhibitors, Hammers says. However, multiple strategies are being evaluated to inflame these tumors to increase their response to immunotherapy.

One strategy is to develop a vaccine with neoantigens, Hammers explains.

Another involves marking the tumor so that the immune system will recognize the tumor as an area of concern and infiltrate it, Hammers says. Activators of the innate immune system, such as toll-like receptor agonists or STING agonists, can do this.

However, these agents have to be delivered through repeated intratumoral injections. Developing prodrugs to deliver the therapies to the tumor where they will activate locally may allow for intravenous administration of these agonists, concludes Hammers.