Dr. Stewart assesses novel renal cancer treatment

The median overall survival in renal cell carcinoma patients was similar, regardless of whether or not patients received a break from treatment.

“When you compound the patient delay and…the physician delay, then you really get a delay in diagnosis,” says Curtis A. Pettaway, MD.

“As a whole, the benefits of the lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab combination proved to be durable, statistically significant, and clinically meaningful,” said senior author Camillo Porta, MD.

“Because so many disease processes that we deal with are related to tobacco use and smoking specifically… I think this is absolutely our domain,” says Richard S. Matulewicz, MD, of tobacco cessation counseling and treatment.

Published results from the phase 3 CONCEPT study showed improved outcomes with the combination compared with either agent alone.

The phase 2 Cyto-KIK study is exploring cytoreductive surgery plus immunotherapy with nivolumab and targeted kinase inhibition with cabozantinib in metastatic kidney cancer.