Dr. Rini on Adjuvant Immunotherapy in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Brian I. Rini, MD, professor of medicine, Cleveland Clinic, discusses the potential of immunotherapy as an adjuvant treatment for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The next wave with adjuvant treatment in RCC is checkpoint inhibitors, Rini explains. There are handful of ongoing clinical trials exploring them in this setting, one of which is with atezolizumab (Tecentriq). Other ongoing studies are with nivolumab (Opdivo) and durvalumab (Imfinzi).

Immunotherapy makes sense in the adjuvant setting, Rini adds, because it is usually better tolerated by patients and likely has the potential to extend overall survival. However, the results of these ongoing trials won't be available for many years, he concludes.