Dr. Choueiri on the Future Examination of Adjuvant Pembrolizumab in RCC

Toni Choueiri, MD, medical director, International Strategic Initiatives, director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director, Kidney Cancer Center, senior physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Chair and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the future examination of adjuvant pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

In November 2021, the FDA approved pembrolizumab as adjuvant therapy in patients with high-risk RCC, Choueiri says. Currently, clinicians are aiming to understand the data in more detail, leading to the LITESPARK-022 trial (NCT05239728), Choueiri adds. In this trial, the control arm is not placebo, but rather adjuvant pembrolizumab, and the trial is open for accrual internationally, Choueiri explains.

LITESPARK-022 will utilize pembrolizumab as the control arm, whereas the experimental arm will be pembrolizumab plus belzutifan (MK-6482), which has shown activity in metastatic disease, Choueiri concludes.