Dr. McDermott on Long-Term Benefit With Nivolumab in RCC

David F. McDermott, MD, associate professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, staff physician, director, Biologic Therapy and Cutaneous Oncology Programs, Hematology/Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses long-term follow-up results of treatment with nivolumab (Opdivo) for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Long-term outcomes from phase I and II studies of nivolumab demonstrate that the median overall survival was 22 months. However, with 48 months of follow-up, it was found that approximately one-third of patients were alive at 4 years and one-third were alive at 5 years. Compared with data from 5 to 10 years ago, these results are very encouraging, McDermott explains.

Longer follow-up will need to be conducted of the phase III study. However, McDermott says that an interesting point about these data is that it can impact a broader group of patients with RCC.