Consensus Statement Sets New Benchmark for Immunotherapy Guidelines in RCC

As a new standard in the field, every patient should receive an anti-PD-1-based therapy as initial treatment unless there is a specific contraindication to this approach. However, there remains a need for biomarkers to better predict patient response and to help decide the best treatment approach for each patient. Additionally, it remains to be determined whether new IO combinations including VEGFR TKIs will elicit properties of IO therapy, enabling the patient the ability to stop treatment with persistent benefit.”

     These are among the conclusions of a comprehensive and thoroughly researched consensus statement with special relevance to those of us engaged in kidney cancer care. The document is The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer Consensus Statement on Immunotherapy for the Treatment of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC).

     Let’s start with the credentials of the group spearheading this initiative. It was my privilege to serve among the 19 members of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) panel, a group with literally hundreds of years of clinical practice and clinical trial experience. This subcommittee included expert physicians, nurses, scientists, and a patient advocate who regularly communicated via email, teleconference, and in-person between September 2018 and June 2019 to review existing new data and determine how to incorporate these results into updated RCC-specific consensus management guidelines.  (continue) 

Robert A. Figlin, MD

Implications of VHL-HIF Pathway Dysregulation in Renal Cell Carcinoma: Current Therapeutic Strategies and Challenges

Eric Jonasch, MD

Professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology

Director, The Von Hippel Lindau Clinical Center

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston, TX      Read

To view the current issue

as a PDF file, click here