Kidney Cancer

“The results suggest there is a clinically meaningful population of patients who can experience a long-term survival benefit from tivozanib over sorafenib,” said Kathryn E. Beckermann, MD, PhD.

Immunotherapy initiation within 1 month of death for patients with renal cell carcinoma increased from 0.5% to 2.6% over the course of the study.

As the year comes to a close, we revisit some of this year’s top content on kidney cancer.

The combination was explored in genomically defined metastatic renal cell carcinoma cohorts.

The approval is supported by findings from the phase 3 LITESPARK-005 trial.

W. Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, an internationally recognized expert in kidney cancer, is Chair of the Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Data from the phase 2 LITESPARK-004 trial led to the FDA approval of belzutifan for patients with von Hippel-Lindau disease who require therapy for associated renal cell carcinoma and other diseases.

The novel TKI zanzalintinib demonstrated early efficacy signals with manageable toxicity in patients with advanced clear-cell renal cell carcinoma.

Researchers are exploring the potential of CAR T-cell therapy in patients with renal cell carcinoma who have disease progression following treatment with checkpoint inhibitors and VEGF inhibitors.

Adjuvant pembrolizumab improved overall survival compared with placebo in patients with renal cell carcinoma at intermediate-high or high risk of recurrence following nephrectomy, or following nephrectomy and resection of metastatic lesions.

Data showed noninferiority of subcutaneous nivolumab to intravenous nivolumab in the time-average to nivolumab serum concentration over 28 days (Cavgd28) and the trough serum concentration at steady state (Cminss).

“The goal of our work, essentially, was to leverage a national population-based cancer registry to comprehensively analyze multiple socioeconomic determinants of racial disparities and survival outcomes among nearly 400,000 patients with renal cell carcinoma,” says Nirmish Singla, MD, MSc.

The study achieved 100% local control and cancer-specific mortality rates with stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy.

The supplemental new drug application is supported by findings from the LITESPARK-005 trial.

The phase 1/2 Oncorella-1 trial is expected to enroll up to 40 patients with advanced kidney cancer who are on dialysis due to renal failure.

A Cleveland Clinic study found that TKIs in the neoadjuvant setting are associated with greater use of partial nephrectomy when treating patients diagnosed with renal masses in a solitary kidney.

"When a patient or an imaging study identifies an incidental adrenal mass, the first upfront radiographic test is a non-contrast CT scan," says Neal E. Rowe, MD, FRCSC.

The disease-free survival and distant metastasis-free survival benefits observed with adjuvant pembrolizumab in the intent-to-treat population of patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma extended across all subgroups defined by disease risk, tumor stage, and lymph node involvement.

Patients in the phase 3 LITESPARK-005 trial were randomized to belzutifan or everolimus after receiving both a PD-1/L1 inhibitor and a VEGF-TKI for their renal cell carcinoma.

"One of the things that we want to look at long-term is how the kidney being exposed to limited durations of warm ischemia compared to no ischemia at all affects longitudinal atrophy," says Carlos Muñoz-Lopez.

“The primary thing we found was that the average kidney–and we study the ipsilateral kidney, or the kidney that was operated on–fell at the natural aging process,” says Carlos Muñoz-Lopez.

Due to rigorous data collection, there has been very little dropout and 3-year OS and PFS compare favorably to alternate regimens such as ipilimumab nivolumab,” says Elizabeth R. Plimack, MD, MS,

The CAR T-cell therapy IVS-3001 is being explored in patients with previously treated, locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors that are HLA-G–positive.

Although the use of immunotherapy treatments continues to become more prevalent in advanced renal cell carcinoma, high-level evidence showing benefit of sequential administration of these agents is limited.

Investigations of treatment regimens featuring antibody-drug conjugates or radiotherapeutics are part of the ongoing wave of research in renal cell carcinoma, according to Rana R. McKay, MD.