Renal Cell Carcinoma

Raja E. Abdulnour, MD, discusses modern management strategies for pneumonitis induced by treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with kidney cancer.

In a phase II trial, the combination of lenvantinib and pembrolizumab demonstrated a manageable safety profile and encouraging antitumor activity in patients with selected advanced solid tumors. The decision to combine the agents was based on preclinical data, which suggested that VEGF and FGF signaling may enhance the therapeutic efficacy of lenvatinib.

Integrating a geriatric assessment into the care of older adults who are receiving cancer treatment in communi­ty oncology practices improves patient and caregiver satisfaction and encourages commu­nication about aging-related concerns, accord­ing to results of a clinical trial that enrolled 541 patients with advanced cancer.

All patients with advanced renal cell car­cinoma assigned to nivolumab plus ipilimumab in the phase III CheckMate 214 trial had a longer treatment-free survival than patients treated with sunitinib. Furthermore, those patients assigned to the combination spent less time experiencing treatment-related adverse events.

The present and future benefits of telehealth in oncology can be observed through Tahoe For­est Cancer Center and its affiliation with the UC Davis Cancer Center, use of other remote clinics, and participation in virtual tumor boards. Even though there are roadblocks to telehealth reaching more locations and more patients, the potential benefit warrants the time needed to get over those hurdles.

The FDA granted approval to countless treatments across cancer types throughout 2019 until the end of the year, with a final approval on December 31^st for the first BRCA targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer. Following the excitement for a new year of further advances, Targeted Oncology followers on Twitter shared their thoughts on some of the most impactful FDA approvals in 2019.

Individuals with obesity who were diagnosed with locally advanced or metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma achieved longer overall survival than patients of normal weight in select groups of an independent cohort study, which evaluated overall survival and the transcriptomic differences in the primary tumor and peritumoral adipose tissue in adult patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Frontline TKI in Intermediate-Risk Renal Cell Carcinoma

In patients whose solid<strong> </strong>tumors harbor a mutation in <em>KRAS </em>G12C, therapy with MRTX849 has produced promising responses and acceptable toxicity across 3 tumors types, according to data presented at the 2019 American Association for Cancer Research&ndash;National Cancer Institute&ndash;European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics.

Cytotoxic chemotherapy has shown limited efficacy in metastatic RCC, but immunotherapeutic and antiangiogenic approaches have introduced promising treatment modalities. The use of immunotherapy has made a significant impact on the treatment of patients with RCC, first with single agents and then with combination regimens.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology during the 2019 Kidney Cancer Research Summit, Wayne A. Marasco, MD, PhD, discussed the intricacy of engineering CAR T cells and the early data he has observed with the approach in RCC.

Findings from a planned interim analysis of the Ib/II Study 111 showed that lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab induced a disease control rate of 94% in patients with metastatic clear cell RCC who had disease progression following treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitor.

Chung-Han Lee, MD, PhD, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the rationale for the phase II study of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab for disease progression after PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma assigned to nivolumab plus ipilimumab had a longer treatment-free survival than patients treated with sunitinib. Furthermore, those patients assigned to the combination spent less time experiencing treatment-related adverse events.

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology&nbsp;at the IKCS meeting, Gennady Bratslavsky, MD, provided his expert opinion on the optimal first-line therapy for non&ndash;clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a topic he debated on with peers at the 2019 International Kidney Cancer Symposium.

Martin H. Voss, reviews the method of design and results for the phase I/II study of the experimental anti&ndash;PD-1 anitbody MEDI0680 plus durvalumab versus nivolumab monotherapy in patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.<br /> &nbsp;

In an interview with&nbsp;Targeted Oncology during the 2019 International Kidney Cancer Symposium, Yinghong Wang, MD, PhD, MS, discussed the management of gi-related toxicity in patients with kidney cancer from the perspective of a gastrointestinal specialist. She also explained the multidisciplinary collaboration between oncology and gastrointestinal departments to enhance care.&nbsp;

Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston established its immunotherapy toxicity service care team in part because of the experience of David M., a patient treated there for metastatic melanoma that spread to the lung and brain.

Treating clear cell renal cell carcinoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors resulted in vascular changes that may make these tumors more vulnerable to combinations of ICIs and VEGF inhibitors, according to data presented at the 18th International Kidney Cancer Symposium.