Dr Hammers on Unmet Needs in the Frontline Treatment of RCC

Hans Hammers, MD, PhD, professor, Department of Internal Medicine, member, Division of Hematology and Oncology, inaugural Eugene P. Frenkel, MD Scholar in Clinical Medicine, Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses areas of controversy and remaining unmet needs in the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

In an OncLive® State of the Science Summit™ (SOSS), Hammers and colleagues from the UT Southwestern Medical Center each gave presentations on topics spanning bladder cancer and RCC care. Moreover, experts in RCC spoke to 3 case presentations in the treatment of patients with RCC. Hammers says that an ongoing area of debate is regarding the long-term outcomes with certain frontline therapies, and that novel data are beginning to address questions surrounding this topic. Notably, the 2 main categories of treatment in the frontline setting include dual checkpoint inhibitors and the combination of a PD-1 inhibitor with a TKI, Hammers explains

During the 2023 ASCO Annual Meeting, long-term follow-up data with the use of these frontline treatments were presented, according to Hammers. Data with the use of a PD-1 inhibitor plus a TKI were indirectly compared with findings from the phase 3 CheckMate 214 trial (NCT02231749). These data must be indirectly compared because, unfortunately, there is yet to be a head-to-head comparison of these regimens in the United States, Hammers notes.

The SOSS featured case discussions about different types of patients with RCC and various treatment approaches, Hammers says. He notes that it is possible for patients to progress on dual immune checkpoint inhibition, and that this regimen would be the wrong choice for a patient in the hospital who needs an immediate response to be released from the hospital. However, dual checkpoint inhibition may be the optimal treatment approach for a patient who doesn’t need a response immediately and would rather invest in long-term outcomes, he explains.

Although some clinical criteria can help decide which treatments to choose in which patients, a balanced discussion with patients about the available regimens is important, Hammers concludes.