Integrative Approaches in Kidney Cancer Biomarker Research

In the third video of this series, Katy Beckermann, MD, PhD, of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and David Braun, MD, PhD, of Yale School of Medicine, stress the importance of replicating results across studies and adopting a comprehensive, integrative approach to biomarker-based research in kidney cancer treatment.

They conclude with noting the significance of large cohort studies and patient contributions to medical advancement.

View their previous comments on Transcriptomic Insights and JAVELIN Renal 101.

—

Dr. Beckermann: I wonder what you think about how we will be able to move this going forward. Do you think that this will replicate for different drugs? Is this going to be drug-specific? Or do you think that we will be able to apply these findings broadly?

Also, do you feel like it is going to be an integrative approach? Is there something specific that you felt like was more exciting from this work that you feel should be looked at in future clinical trials?

Dr. Braun: Those are really important questions. I think replication is going to be the key to ensuring these findings are robust across studies. Some may be agnostic to therapy, as they are associations between tumor and host genetics and immune populations. However, associations with clinical outcomes will need validation in other phase 3 trials that have looked at similar combinations.

What excites me most is the roadmap this study provides for future trial design and conducting biomarker-based studies. It is clear that looking at just the tumor or 1 feature in the tumor alone is inadequate. Future studies will need to consider baseline tumor, host genetic factors, and circulating immune populations, along with broader chemokine, cytokine, and growth factor analysis within the plasma, to get a comprehensive view.

While this will not change how we practice immediately, it provides a foundation for future studies to tease apart these complexities and better stratify patients.

Dr. Beckermann: I totally agree. I think it really shows again that the effort can be accomplished even in this large cohort, which is really where we learn the most. Our patients give so much of themselves to participate in all these trials, and we want to collect quality-of-life data and we want to collect efficacy data, but we really need to learn next steps.