For the first time, an immunotherapy treatment appears to be effective in patients with kidney cancer who have undergone surgery.
- Researchers recently presented the promising results of a post-surgery immunotherapy treatment in patients with kidney cancer: pembrolizumab.
- After more than 4 months of follow-up of 994 patients with clear cell carcinoma and previous surgery to remove the cancerous kidney, pembrolizumab was associated with a 38% reduction in the risk of death compared to placebo.
- “Pembrolizumab not only delays cancer recurrence, it also prolongs survival,” according to the researchers. “A first since 1973”, date of the first randomized controlled trial of adjuvant treatment on patients with kidney cancer.
“We can now tell our patients that this drug not only delays recurrences, but also helps them live longer.” On the occasion of a congress of theAmerican Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) at the end of January, researchers presented the promising results of a post-operative immunotherapy treatment in patients with kidney cancer: pembrolizumab. “A first” for 50 years.
An increase in overall survival of patients with kidney cancer
To arrive at these conclusions, the team Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the world’s leading centers for cancer research and treatment, relied on an international clinical trial conducted on 994 patients with clear cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer. All had undergone removal of the cancerous kidney in the 12 weeks preceding the study, and were at high risk of recurrence and therefore metastases.
Once every three weeks for about a year, participants received either a placebo or pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug that helps release the immune system’s T cells to fight the tumor. After more than 4 months of follow-up, pembrolizumab was associated with a 38% reduction in the risk of death compared to placebo.
“The overall survival benefits of pembrolizumab were consistent across subgroups, independent of tumor stage, risk stratification, immunological biomarkers and other characteristics”can we read in a communicated. Although no pembrolizumab-related deaths have been reported, approximately 18% of patients stopped treatment due to side effects associated with the drug.
Pembrolizumab effective after kidney cancer surgery
“Our results show that pembrolizumab not only delays cancer recurrence, it also prolongs survival,” notes researcher Toni Choueiri, in charge of the work. It is “a first since 1973”, date of the first randomized controlled trial of a so-called adjuvant treatment (that is to say intended to improve the effectiveness of the primary treatment, in this case surgery) on patients suffering from kidney cancer. More than 12,000 of them have been studied over 50 years by ASCO researchers.
With pembrolizumab as “standard of care” for this group of patients, the researcher now intends to determine whether the treatment can be “improved by combining pembrolizumab with the HIF-2 inhibitor belzutifan”another medicine used to treat renal cell carcinoma.
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