The Search for Biomarkers in Renal Cell Carcinoma

When asked about the future of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) treatment, one expert is hopeful about the current search, but notes that more work is needed to find a reliable biomarker for use in patients with the most common kind of kidney cancer.

During the 2019 Kidney Cancer Research Summit, CURE®’s sister publication, OncLive®, spoke with Dr. Brian I. Rini, professor of medicine at Cleveland Clinic, about how the search for biomarkers to help inform treatment decisions is evolving and where it can improve.

Transcription:

I’m more optimistic now with this generation of phase 3 (trials). I think we’re doing a better job of collecting samples, consenting patients appropriately and doing assays in real time. When we developed the VEGF-targeted therapy 15 years ago, we were just so happy there were drugs that worked that we didn’t really do a good job of adequately collecting samples and consenting and so a lot of that work was very descriptive and not very mechanistic.

I feel like we’ve at least, as a field, taken a step forward. Again, until we develop a biomarker that’s clinically useful, then none of that matters. So, I’m sort of optimistic and sort of pessimistic, I guess? More optimistic, but still understanding as a clinician that I think we’re a long way from that.