Elizabeth Plimack, MD, director of Genitourinary Clinical Research at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses recent trials in kidney cancer.

In findings from the phase III IMmotion151 study presented during the 2018 Genitourinary (GU) Cancers Symposium, the combination of atezolizumab (Tecentriq) and bevacizumab (Avastin) reduced the risk of progression or death by 26% compared with sunitinib (Sutent) for patients with untreated PD-L1—positive metastatic kidney cancer. This is one of the first trials of VEGF inhibition with PD-1 inhibition to read out, says Plimack.

Long-term single-arm data with the combination of axitinib (Inlyta) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda), another immunotherapy combination, was also recently presented at the 2018 GU Cancers Symposium. The combination showed superior antitumor activity to that expected from axitinib or PD-1/PD-L1 pathway inhibitor monotherapy in treatment-naïve patients with advanced kidney cancer. Best overall response was a complete response in 4 patients (7.7%), partial response in 34 (65.4%), and stable disease in 8 (15.4%). The median progression-free survival was 20.9 months (95% CI, 15.4-not evaluable).