An Introduction to the Future of Kidney Cancer Treatment

CURE was live on site at the the 19th Annual New York GU Cancers Congress®, where we spoke with Dr. Ulka Vaishampayan. At the congress, Vaishampayan discussed the future of renal cell carcinoma, sharing insights on emerging therapies and strategies that could shape treatment for kidney cancer patients.

She is a Beverly Mitchell Research Professor of Oncology and co-leader of Translational Clinical Research Program at the University of Michigan/Rogel Cancer Center. Here is what she had to say!

At this years congress, you are speaking about the future of renal cell carcinoma. Can you explain what “novel agents” and “precision strategies” mean for kidney cancer patients in simple terms?

In kidney cancer, there are a lot of new approaches and therapies that are coming about. One area of interest is microbiome-impacting therapy, which is where the bacteria in the intestine can have an impact on responses to immunotherapy in metastatic kidney cancer. If you give patients probiotics or prebiotics, there could potentially be a positive impact on the response. Again, this is not yet proven and is still in clinical trials, but there is going to be a national trial of a probiotic called CBM588.

As well, we are studying an inulin gel at the University of Michigan, which is a prebiotic that sort of stabilizes the gut bacteria and may have a chance of helping improve the response and reduce the toxicity of immunotherapy.

Besides that, there are new medications, including both bispecific antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates. An antibody-drug conjugate is an antibody that is coupled with a chemotherapy molecule, which ends up being very targeted chemotherapy. Targeted radiation approaches are also available, which are called radioligand or theranostic approaches.

There are multiple different ways to try and attack kidney cancer that is refractory to currently available therapies. There are also new types of immunotherapy which have not yet been FDA approved, but there are mechanisms of resistance that we find to immunotherapy that are being addressed.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

For more news on cancer updates, research and education, don’t forget to subscribe to CURE®’s newsletters here.