Dr. Pal on the CheckMate-214 and CABOSUN Studies in RCC

Sumanta Kumar Pal, MD, co-director of the Kidney Cancer Program at the City of Hope in Duarte, California, discusses the CheckMate-214 and CABOSUN trials for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The randomized CheckMate-214 study investigated the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) versus sunitinib (Sutent). This study appeared to have an overall survival benefit and a benefit in response rate. There was no significant difference in terms of progression-free survival (PFS).

In contrast, the CABOSUN study randomized patients to sunitinib or cabozantinib (Cabometyx) and showed a benefit in terms of PFS with cabozantinib. Both cabozantinib and nivolumab plus ipilimumab showed improvement versus sunitinib.