Dr. Rini Discusses Atezolizumab Plus Bevacizumab in RCC

Brian I. Rini, MD, professor of medicine, Cleveland Clinic, discusses atezolizumab (Tecentriq) plus bevacizumab (Avastin) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Rini says that the FDA approval of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab will be one of a string of combination approvals in RCC. In April 2018, the FDA approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) as a frontline treatment for intermediate- and poor-risk patients with advanced RCC. Rini predicts that sunitinib (Sutent) and pazopanib (Votrient) will no longer be the standards of care, as immunotherapy combinations continue to show positive results.

Findings from the IMmotion151 trial showed that the combination of atezolizumab and bevacizumab reduced the risk of progression of death by 26% compared to sunitinib in patients with untreated PD-L1—positive metastatic RCC. The median progression-free survival by investigator assessment for PD-L1 expressers on ≥1% of immune cells (n = 362) was 11.2 months (95% CI, 8.9-15.0) with atezolizumab and bevacizumab compared with 7.7 months (95% CI, 6.8-9.7) with sunitinib (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.57-0.96; P = .0217).