Aiming for Long Term Success in Kidney Cancer Treatment

Now that oncologists are seeing positive short-term results in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the next step should be translating those results into longer-term success, according to medical oncologist and director of Barts Cancer Institute, Dr. Thomas Powles.

In an interview with OncLive, CURE^®’s sister publication, Powles discussed how the results of the COSMIC-313 trial. Here, he discusses how researchers are changing the biology of the disease in order to better treat patients and explains that future trials should consider setting more aggressive endpoints.

Transcription:

That’s a really important philosophical question for cancer treatments. Because many of our endpoints are quite early: 12-month survival, two-year survival. But when you speak to patients, they’re looking for more than 12-month survival. Most patients — all patients – who we see, they want to see not next Christmas, but they want to see Christmas in five- and 10-years’ time.

This data is pointing towards that, that we actually can change the biology of the disease. So, we’re not just altering the deck chairs on the Titanic, but actually keeping the Titanic afloat, which is the goal. And I think this data is a really important step in that (direction).

Other trials, (such as KEYNOTE-)426, axitinib (Inlyta)/pembrolizumab (Keytruda), have shorter follow-ups than that. We need to see the longer follow-up to see if those initial excellent results with axi/pembro — response rates of 60%, progression-free survival over 15 months, hazard ratio for survival 0.53, 47% reduction in the risk of death – we want to see those data being translated in the longer term as well.