Dr. Bhatt on Identification of Immune Checkpoint Pathway in RCC

Rupal S. Bhatt, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, clinical fellow, Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discusses the discovery of HHLA2/KIR3DL3, a novel therapeutic immune checkpoint pathway in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Bhatt explains that this pathway is homologous to PD-L1; it also has similar stimulatory and inhibitory function to that of the CD28 and CTLA-4 pathway.

However, its expression appears to be different than PD-L1 and it is a different target. If able to achieve dual or alternate targeting in RCC, investigators may be able to develop new combination therapies.

The field of RCC has seen a great deal of growth over recent years, says Bhatt. As more developments lead to new standards of care for patients, the hope is that the integration of this treatment as either a single-agent or in combination may prove effective.