‘Absolutely Important’ to Develop Better Ways to Predict Kidney Cancer Recurrence, Says Expert

Video

Future research must address ways to improve the prediction of kidney cancer recurrence to better inform patients, says an expert from the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Questions concerning disease recurrence among patients with renal cell carcinoma—a type of kidney cancer—need to be answered with future research, according to Axel Bex, MD, PhD, a urologic surgeon at the Specialist Centre For Kidney Cancer, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, and a professor at University College London, Division of Surgery and Interventional Science.

During the 2022 Society for Urologic Oncology (SUO) Annual Meeting, CancerNetwork® spoke with Bex about his presentation on new developments in adjuvant therapy for renal cell carcinoma.

Bex also said that the use of gene-expression profiles as predictive biomarkers of treatment response is another development in the field that is being explored in the BIONIKK trial (NCT02960906), which is evaluating nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in metastatic kidney cancer. Reducing the rate of overtreatment for metastatic kidney cancer is another important challenge, according to Bex.

Transcript:

First of all, we know from the metastatic setting that there are certain molecular subtypes that seem to predict that these patients respond better to immunotherapy, but they haven't made it into general practice yet as biomarkers. But as we heard here at SUO, there are some trials being planned.

We also have the BIONIKK trial in Europe, for example, that would look at certain gene expression profiles, and select patients who are much more likely to respond. Now, what we need to avoid in the future is there's a 40% over-treatment rate. That's something we already learned from [tumor growth inhibition] trials. It is absolutely important that we improve our prediction of recurrences. Patients want to know: do [my diseases] recur? And if so, is there something that helps me? And if there's something that helps me, is it likely that I will respond to it? These 2 questions need to be answered, and I think we have the tools.

Newsletter

Stay up to date on recent advances in the multidisciplinary approach to cancer.

Recent Videos
Success with the 177Lu-PSMA-617 radioligand therapy would be transformative for the clear cell renal cell carcinoma treatment landscape.
An ongoing phase 1 trial seeks to prove XmAb819 as an effective treatment and ENPP3 as a plausible target in patients with relapsed or refractory RCC.
“The therapy is designed to prevent both CAR T-cell inactivation and to restore the anti-tumor immunity of the white blood cells that have gotten through the tumor,” said Marasco, MD, PhD.
Ongoing studies aim to combine base immunotherapy regimens with novel agents to potentially improve outcomes among patients with kidney cancer.
Investigators have found a way to reduce liver and biliary toxicity when targeting the molecule CAIX in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
Neoantigen-targeting vaccines resulted in an absence of recurrence in 9 patients with high-risk kidney cancer, according to David A. Braun, MD, PhD.
The Kidney Cancer Research Consortium may allow collaborators to form more mechanistic and scientifically driven efforts in the field.
Wayne A. Marasco, MD, PhD, stated that by targeting 2 molecules instead of 1, higher levels of tumor cell killing can be achieved in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
Leading experts in the breast cancer field highlight the use of CDK4/6 inhibitors, antibody-drug conjugates, and other treatment modalities.
Related Content