ADCs, Cellular Therapies May Improve Outcomes in Refractory/Resistant RCC

Video

Early phase trials investigating cellular therapies, bispecific antibodies, and antibody-drug conjugates for refractory kidney cancer may uncover strategies to overcome resistance mechanisms.

During the 2023 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, CancerNetwork® interviewed Tian Zhang, MD, MHS, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, regarding methods to potentially improve immuno-responsiveness and decrease toxicity in patients with refractory kidney cancer who are resistant to previous treatment with immunotherapy.

Zhang discussed the importance of individually assessing patients to determine previous treatments and which therapies they are resistant to. From there, it is possible to sequence various VEGF inhibitor and immunotherapy combination regimens that could benefit the patient.

Additionally, she indicated that strategies including cellular therapies, bispecifics, and antibody-drug conjugates, although still being assessed in early phase studies, may improve safety and responses in this population.

Transcript:

Certainly, refractory disease and treatment selection does depend on frontline treatments and timing of resistance. Patients should be assessed individually as to how they’ve incurred their resistance and what prior therapies they’ve had. Sequencing different VEGF-targeted therapies or immunotherapy combinations in the refractory setting is an important consideration.

Generally, ipilimumab [Yervoy] does not seem to be so effective in patients who have had prior nivolumab [Opdivo], so that is a less effective strategy. Ongoing phase 3 studies like the phase 3 CONTACT-03 study [NCT04338269], phase 3 TiNivo-2 study [NCT04987203], and phase 3 PDIGREE study [NCT03793166] will also help us think about sequential treatments for metastatic renal cell carcinoma and form a novel therapy perspective.

These early phase trials with cellular therapies, bispecifics, and antibody-drug conjugates are all great ways that we can think about novel treatments in the refractory setting and efforts to both control toxicity and also improve immuno-responsiveness for kidney cancer.

Related Videos
Increasing screening for younger individuals who are at risk of colorectal cancer may help mitigate the rising early incidence of this disease.
Laparoscopy may reduce the degree of pain or length of hospital stay compared with open surgery for patients with colorectal cancer.
The use of proton therapy may offer a more specific depth charge compared with conventional radiation, according to Timothy Chen, MD.
ZAP-X may provide submillimeter accuracy when administering radiation to patients with brain tumors.
Tailoring neoadjuvant therapy regimens for patients with mismatch repair deficient gastroesophageal cancer represents a future step in terms of research.
Not much is currently known about the factors that may predict pathologic responses to neoadjuvant immunotherapy in this population, says Adrienne Bruce Shannon, MD.
The toxicity profile of tislelizumab also appears to look better compared with chemotherapy in metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
Related Content