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A combination of two targeted therapy drugs can dramatically improve survival for certain patients with newly diagnosed advanced kidney cancer, data from a midstage trial suggests.<\/strong><\/p>\n The trial testing the two drugs was launched before therapies known as immune-checkpoint inhibitors became the preferred treatment for such patients.<\/p>\n But checkpoint inhibitors such as Merck\u2019s Keytruda and Bristol Myers Squibb\u2019s Opdivo cannot be used by patients with \u200bautoimmune diseases, and their cost can be prohibitive, \u200bespecially in low-resource settings.<\/p>\n The 51 patients in the \u2060trial \u2014 all with clear cell renal carcinoma that had spread throughout the body by the time it was first detected \u2014 received Votrient from Novartis (NOVN.S), opens new tab and Roche\u2019s Avastin on an alternating basis.<\/p>\n Both drugs block the action of a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, that promotes the growth of new blood \u200bvessels that can supply the tumor with oxygen and nutrients. Votrient\u2019s effect on VEGF weakens over time, while Avastin actually removes VEGF from circulation.<\/p>\n The patients \u200bsurvived for a median of \u206063.2 months, including 24.8 months during which their disease did not worsen, researchers reported in The Lancet Oncology, opens new tab. A particularly strong benefit was seen in the 33 trial participants who were considered \u201cfavorable-risk\u201d based on their underlying health status. In \u2060this group, \u200bmedian progression-free survival, the time before the cancer began to worsen, reached 28.5 months and overall survival was 76.9 months, the \u200bresearchers found.<\/p>\n In the favorable-risk patients, \u201cthe benefit from this novel regimen of (Votrient and Avastin) was comparable to or better than that of the contemporary immunotherapy combinations,\u201d study leader Dr. Saby George of the Roswell<\/p>\n Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, said in \u200ba statement. \u201cThis is significant due to the lower cost of this regimen compared to the immunotherapy combinations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
By comparison, when Votrient is given alone as the first-line treatment for patients with previously untreated metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma, overall survival ranges from 28.4 to 29.3 months, and median progression-free survival is just 9.2 months.<\/p>\n