CheckMate 9ER Trial: ICI Provides Survival Benefit in Renal Cell Carcinoma
Relative to the previous standard of sunitinib, a combination of the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab and the tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib improve overall survival (OS) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to results from the phase 3 CheckMate 9ER trial.
Although not the only combination strategy to show an OS advantage over sunitinib (Sutent, Pfizer) for advanced RCC in a phase 3 trial, nivolumab (Opdivo, Bristol Myers Squibb) and cabozantinib (Cabometyx, Exelixis) represent “an important treatment option,” according to investigator Toni K. Choueiri, MD, the director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, in Boston.