Renal Cell Carcinoma

In February 2018, Robert J. Motzer, MD, presented results from the phase 3 IMmotion151 trial at the Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. The highly anticipated findings showed significant promise for the combination of atezolizumab plus bevacizumab in patients with untreated metastatic renal cell carcinoma when compared with the standard treatment of sunitinib. In an interview with Healio, Motzer, who was one of the lead investigators of IMmotion151 and is an attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, spoke in detail about the trial, discussing the catalyst, key findings and what the results may mean for the future of the specialty.

In 2017, the positive results of two trials — CheckMate-214 and CABOSUN — garnered a great deal of attention and discussion, and prompted many in the field to claim that a revolution is underway in the management of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. To better understand the implications of these trials, Healio spoke with Neeraj Agarwal, MD, director of the genitourinary oncology program and associate professor of medicine at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, who discussed the key findings, and shared his thoughts on how the landscape of metastatic renal cell carcinoma therapies may change in the coming years.

The 21st century has witnessed several practice-changing advances in managing patients with renal cell carcinoma, including a steadily growing armamentarium that has resulted in improved patient outlook. In an interview with Healio, Brian I. Rini, MD, professor of medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University and staff member at the Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute, shared his thoughts on these changes and what drives him in research, and offered a glimpse at what he believes the future of renal cell carcinoma treatment will entail.

Recent innovations in the management of renal cell carcinoma have helped clinicians preserve the kidney during surgery and with it, kidney function for their patients. Ketan K. Badani, MD, professor of urology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and director of the comprehensive kidney cancer program at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, spearheaded one of these advances: the first assistant sparing technique for robotic partial nephrectomy. In an interview with Healio, Badani spoke about the advantages of this technique, the limitations with current robotic nephrectomy, how he handles patient education and more.

The introduction of targeted therapies in the management of metastatic renal cell carcinoma has markedly increased the treatment options available for these patients. These agents are now used in the first-line and second-line treatment settings, and beyond, to improve patient outcomes. Although many of these agents were approved on the basis of an improvement in progression-free survival, a recent analysis of a real-world patient population found that the use of targeted therapy has led to improved survival as well.

In this video, Elizabeth Plimack, MD, chief of the division of genitourinary medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discussed the most exciting developments in renal cell carcinoma in the past year.

In this video, Elizabeth Plimack, MD, chief of the division of genitourinary medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, emphasized the importance of communication between patients with renal cell carcinoma and their oncologists.

In an interview with Healio, Elizabeth Plimack, MD, chief of genitourinary medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, highlighted several exciting areas of research in renal cell carcinoma.

In this video, Elizabeth Plimack, MD, chief of the division of genitourinary medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, discussed the use of combination therapies for treatment of renal cell carcinoma.

Healio spoke with Elizabeth Plimack, MD, chief of the division of genitourinary medical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center, on new developments in treatment for patients with renal cell carcinoma.