Dr. Choueiri Discusses the Current State of RCC Treatment

Toni Choueiri, MD, director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director, Kidney Cancer Center, Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the current treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Choueiri says that the field has moved beyond single-agent VEGF receptors and tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Although, single-agent therapy with nivolumab (Opdivo) and cabozantinib (Cabometyx) are still being used.

Findings from the CheckMate-214 study showed that the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab (Yervoy) reduced the risk of death by 37% versus sunitinib in intermediate- and poor-risk RCC (HR, 0.63; P <.0001).

In December 2017, the FDA approved cabozantinib for previously untreated patients with advanced RCC, based on a meaningful improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) versus sunitinib (Sutent) in the CABOSUN trial. Cabozantinib showed superior response rates and an improved PFS in the frontline setting against sunitinib. The median PFS was 8.6 months with cabozantinib versus 5.3 months for sunitinib (HR, 0.48; 95% CI, 0.31-0.74; P = .0008). Additionally, cabozantinib reduced the risk of progression or death by 52% compared with sunitinib.