Patients With Kidney Cancer Treated With Nivolumab Plus Cabozantinib Demonstrate Better Responses

Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) demonstrate better responses on nivolumab plus cabozantinib (NIVO+CABO) versus sunitinib (SUN), according to a study that was presented at the 2022 International Kidney Cancer Symposium: North America.

In this study, Andrea B. Apolo, MD, and colleagues assessed depth of response (DepOR) among patients with untreated aRCC in the CheckMate 9ER trial. Patients were administered either NIVO every 2 weeks plus CABO once daily, or SUN daily. DepOR subgroups were analyzed based on best overall response and best tumor reduction thresholds.

According to the results, in patients randomized to NIVO+CABO or SUN, at 6 months, 236 of 323 and 157 of 328, respectively, achieved progression-free survival (PFS) and were alive. A total of 293 of 323 patients and 253 of 328 patients, respectively, were alive and categorized by DepOR subgroup. The researchers observed that patients receiving NIVO+CABO had deeper responses compared with patients receiving SUN. They noted that responses with NIVO+CABO were correlated with improved 12-month PFS rates compared with SUN for complete response (94.9% vs 82.4%), partial response (PR) 1, (81.3% vs 37.5%), and PR2 (72.1% vs 53.2%). The results showed that deeper responses yielded better survival outcomes.

“More patients achieved deeper responses with NIVO+CABO versus SUN, and deeper responses were generally associated with improved PFS and [overall survival],” the researchers concluded.

Source: Apolo A, Choueiri T, Burotto M, et al. Association between depth of response (DepOR) and clinical outcomes: exploratory analysis in patients with previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) in CheckMate 9ER. Poster 38. Presented at the 2022 IKCS: North America; November 4-5, 2022; Austin, Texas.