ASCO 2024 Highlight: Comparing Chromophobe RCC Treatment Options

A retrospective analysis of just over 100 people with metastatic chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC) showed that patients given first-line doublet therapy – two drugs simultaneously – had superior outcomes compared to patients given a single therapy. [ASCO 2024, Abstract 4512]

This trial, conducted by Dr. Sahil Doshi of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and presented at the 2024 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, included patients from three large cancer centers – Memorial Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Johns Hopkins. The researchers divided the 102 patients included in the analysis into four groups based on their first-line treatment regimen:

• Monotherapy with a targeted agent (ie, sunitinib, everolimus, cabozantinib)
• Doublet therapy with two targeted agents (ie, bevacizumab plus everolimus, lenvatinib plus everolimus)
• Doublet therapy with a targeted agent plus an immunotherapy (ie, cabozantinib plus nivolumab, lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab)
• Immunotherapy alone (ie, pembrolizumab, ipilimumab plus nivolumab)

The presence of targeted therapy appeared to be significant. Median time to treatment failure (15 vs 5 months) and overall survival (56 vs 23 months) was greater among patients given targeted therapy-containing doublet therapy compared with a single targeted agent.

Chromophobe RCC accounts for 5-10 % of all RCC diagnoses and, because of it’s rarity, how it responds to treatments, and limited data, clinicians have little guidance for how best to select treatment for these patients.

“Importantly, our work highlights the feasibility of and need for multi-institution collaborations for rare disease subtypes,” Doshi said. “We are now expanding our efforts and collaborating with eight cancer centers to increase our patient cohort and make comparisons with contemporary regimens.