Dr. Ho on Frontline Treatment Regimens in mRCC

Thai H. Ho, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses frontline treatment regimens in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

There are two schools of thought when it comes to frontline treatment in mRCC, says Ho. The first is that patients should be stratified according to their risk and treated accordingly. In order to achieve a higher likelihood of complete response, the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) may be preferable to an alternative regimen for patients with intermediate- and poor-risk disease, adds Ho.

Another school of thought is to give the combination of axitinib (Inlyta) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to all comers, regardless of a patient’s International Metastatic RCC Database Consortium risk score. Notably, this combination has a higher objective response rate and a lower incidence of grade 3/4 adverse events than some of the other treatment regimens in the frontline setting. Dosing schedules may also factor into the decision, concludes Ho.