Dr. Choueiri on Results of the SAVOIR Trial in MET-Driven Papillary RCC

Toni K. Choueiri, MD, director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director, Kidney Cancer Center, senior physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Chair and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses results of the phase 3 SAVOIR trial evaluating the MET inhibitor savolitinib versus sunitinib (Sutent) in patients with MET-driven papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Papillary RCC is the second most common histology after clear cell RCC, says Choueiri. About 30% to 40% of patients with papillary RCC have a MET pathway alteration such as chromosome 7 trisomy, a germline or somatic MET mutation, MET amplification, or hepatocyte growth factor ligand amplification, says Choueiri.

A phase 2 biomarker-based study revealed that patients with advanced papillary RCC who also had MET alterations had an 18% partial response rate with savolitinib compared with 0% in patients who did not (P =.002), says Choueiri.

Results from the SAVOIR trial showed that progression-free survival (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.37-1.36; P = .313), overall survival (HR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.21-1.17; P = .110), and overall response rate were numerically improved with savolitinib compared with sunitinib in the 60 treated patients with papillary RCC, says Choueiri. Additionally, the toxicity profile of savolitinib was more favorable versus that of sunitinib.

These findings justify performing larger clinical trials to evaluate savolitinib in MET-driven papillary RCC, concludes Choueiri.

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