Combination therapy shows efficacy, safety in treating metastatic renal cell cancer

A new cooperative research study including Norris Cotton Cancer Center's Lionel Lewis, MB BCh, MD, finds that nivolumab plus ipilimumab therapy demonstrated manageable safety, notable antitumor activity, and durable responses with promising long term overall survival in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (mRCC). The multi-institutional study known as the CheckMate 016 study evaluated the efficacy and safety of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in combination and found that the combination treatment showed enhanced antitumor activity compared with monotherapy in tumor types such as melanoma.

Renal cell carcinoma accounts for 2.4% of total cancer cases worldwide, with 338,000 patients diagnosed each year. More than one quarter of these patients present with metastatic disease associated with high mortality. Current treatment options are quite limited, and toxic side effects make them difficult for patients to withstand. Newer immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors nivolumab and ipilimumab have demonstrated better response rates and tolerability through different but complementary mechanisms of action. The combination of these agents has previously been shown to achieve better responses compared with either drug alone in patients with metastatic melanoma and lung cancer, which suggested to researchers that the same may be true for this combination across various tumor types, including mRCC.

"New immunotherapies are showing great promise and novel combinations of these produce more effective treatments than the two used separately," said Lewis. "In this study our results show the combination to be highly effective with durable tumor effects that turn into a longer life for patients with kidney cancer that has spread." The team's findings, "Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Next steps include further follow up of patients on this study and a larger Phase III study of nivolumab plus ipilimumab in combination in mRCC and other solid tumors.​​

Source: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Comments

The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of News Medical.
Post a new comment
Post

While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided.

Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles.

Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Read the full Terms & Conditions.

You might also like...
Research shows link between multiple sclerosis to increased risk of certain cancers