Renal Cell Carcinoma

The FDA approved several indications throughout the month of April 2018. A number of drugs were granted priority review and Fast Track designation. The FDA also halted all clinical trials using tazemetostat as treatment, and new initiatives were introduced to help ease the development of genetic and genomic-based tests. Check out our list of all FDA happenings from April 2018.

A 4-week dosing schedule for nivolumab has been approved by the European Commission for the treatment of patients with advanced melanoma and previously treated renal cell carcinoma, Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), the manufacturer of the PD-1 inhibitor, has announced.

Brad McGregor, MD, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses the future of combination therapies in the treatment landscape of renal cell carcinoma. He highlights the positive results from a few combinations that have been tested in clinical trials. 

The treatment combination of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor axitinib plus pembrolizumab was tolerable in 52 patients with treatment-naïve advanced renal cell carcinoma, and the combination demonstrated promising antitumor activity, according to the lead researcher from Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, DC.

Patients who have intermediate or poor-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma may see extended progression-free survival and overall survival in a phase II trial comparing pazopanib with temsirolimus, according to a presentation by Nizar M. Tannir, MD, FACP, at the 2018 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.