Dr. Van Veldhuizen on Frontline Immunotherapy for Kidney Cancer

Peter J. Van Veldhuizen, MD, hematologist/oncologist, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses frontline immunotherapy for the treatment of patients with kidney cancer.

The nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) combination has been exciting, Van Veldhuizen says, because it resulted in some complete responses in clinical trials. The tolerability in some patients remains an unanswered question, so performance status and age should play a role in deciding if this regimen is the right treatment. An exploratory analysis has also suggested that PD—L1-positive patients with intermediate- or high-risk disease will benefit the most from immunotherapy. Therefore, Van Veldhuizen says, PD–L1 status could be a good biomarker in deciding if immunotherapy or a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) is better for a patient.

Cabozantinib (Cabometyx) and pazopanib (Votrient) have emerged as effective TKIs for patients who are ineligible for immunotherapy.