Purpose Of Review: The advent of checkpoint immunotherapy has dramatically changed the outcomes for patients with cancer. However, a considerable number of patients have little or no response to therapy. We review recent findings on the connection between the gut microbiota and the immune system, exploring whether this link could enhance the effectiveness of immunotherapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objective: Patients receiving immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy may experience periods of prolonged disease control without a need for systemic therapy. Treatment-free survival (TFS) is an important measure for this period, but no data are available for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) starting first-line agents. Our aim was to analyze TFS outcomes for patients with mRCC starting first-line therapy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Genetic variants of UGT1A1, involved in glucuronidation and clearance of bilirubin, are associated with reduced bilirubin metabolization and drug-induced isolated hyperbilirubinemia. We studied the impact of the UGT1A1*28 polymorphism on drug-induced isolated hyperbilirubinemia in metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients treated with pazopanib, cabozantinib, and axitinib.
Methods: We genotyped the UGT1A1*28 TA6/TA6-TA6/TA7-TA7/TA7 polymorphism and correlated with median baseline, on-treatment and peak bilirubin levels during therapy, incidence of grade-1- or -2 (G1/2)-hyperbilirubinemia and time-to-G1-hyperbilirubinemia.
Background: Nivolumab plus ipilimumab (NIVO+IPI) has demonstrated superior overall survival (OS) and durable response benefits versus sunitinib (SUN) with long-term follow-up in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC). We report updated analyses with 8 years of median follow-up from CheckMate 214.
Patients And Methods: Patients with aRCC (N = 1096) were randomized to NIVO 3 mg/kg plus IPI 1 mg/kg Q3W × four doses, followed by NIVO (3 mg/kg or 240 mg Q2W or 480 mg Q4W); or SUN (50 mg) once daily for 4 weeks on, 2 weeks off.