Dr. Sznol Discusses the Importance of Clinical Trials in RCC

Mario Sznol, MD, professor of Medicine, co-director, Yale SPORE in Skin Cancer, Yale Cancer Center, discusses the importance of clinical trials in renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Immunotherapy has begun to show promise in the treatment of patients with RCC. In April 2018, the FDA approved the combination of nivolumab (Opdivo) and ipilimumab (Yervoy) as a frontline treatment for intermediate- and poor-risk patients with advanced RCC based on findings from the CheckMate-214 trial.

Sznol says that the message he would like to get across to the community oncologist is that they should consider their patients with RCC for clinical trials of immunotherapy, as it is not yet fully understood how to use these agents optimally. For most patients, Sznol says that a combination of 2 immunotherapy agents, or an immunotherapy agent with a VEGF inhibitor will be an effective therapy in the frontline setting. Sznol says that if clinical trials with immunotherapy agents are not done is RCC, then the current landscape will remain confusing for oncologists.