Kidney Cancer Journal 9
MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE
Newsworthy, late-breaking information from Web-based
sources, professional societies, and government agencies
New KCJ Website Will Offer Exciting Resource
With Impact, Analyses to Unpack Emerging Data
NEW YORK—Where do you go for reliable, insightful, and
late-breaking news online? Beginning April 15, the Kidney
Cancer Journal will unveil dramatic changes to its website,
providing readers with a new dimension of content all obtainable
digitally. From a regularly updated newsfeed to
analyses following articles in the journal, readers will have a
dynamic source of information that digs behind the headlines
to unpack the most impactful information, bringing
you results with translational importance. For 17 years the
journal has established a reputation as the most comprehensive
source on renal cell carcinoma trends. By enhancing
the website, the journal will keep you up to date on
late-breaking news while analyzing its significance.
A Demographic Snapshot:
Who Attends GU ASCO Meeting?
SAN FRANCISCO—The American Society of Clinical Oncology
(ASCO) offers a quick summary on who attends its GU
meeting. The demographics for 2019 are expected to be
similar to last year’s results when 4500 attended the meeting.
Here is the breakout of who attends:
• Professionals—4150
• Exhibitors—284
• Spouse, Guest, Media—66
• Domestic Attendees—50%
• International Attendees—50%
TOP 5 COUNTRIES
• United States—2057
• France—210
• Canada—204
• United Kingdom—161
• Germany—153
• 65 Other Countries—1365
FDA Gives Priority Status to
Avelumab-Axitinib Combination
SILVER SPRING, MD—The FDA has accepted for priority
review a supplemental Biologics License Application for
Merck’s Bavencio (avelumab) in combination with Inlyta
(axitinib) for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma
(RCC). The submission is based on data from the pivotal
Phase III JAVELIN Renal 101 trial, in which 30 clinical programs
and more than 9,000 patients evaluated across more
than 15 different tumor types.In addition to RCC, these
tumor types include breast, gastric/gastro-esophageal junction,
and head and neck cancers, Merkel cell carcinoma,
non-small cell lung cancer, and urothelial carcinoma. Clear
cell carcinoma, accounts for approximately 70% of all RCC
cases, with an estimated 73,820 new cases of kidney cancer
expected to be diagnosed in the US in 2019.
Tivozanib, Still Seeking FDA Approval,
Scores Favorable Results in Phase 3
Tivozanib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor with a troubled history
at the FDA despite its approval in Europe, is making
progress in a Phase 3 trial that may yet set the stage for the
drug to become a part of treatment selection in the US.
Patients with refractory metastatic renal cell carcinoma
(mRCC) have better outcomes when treated with tivozanib
compared with sorafenib, according to study findings presented
at the 2019 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium.
In the TIVO-3 phase 3 trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
NCT02627963), which compared the drugs in patients with
mRCC who had received 2 or 3 prior systematic therapies
that failed, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.6
months (95% CI, 7.3-5.3) among patients who received
tivozanib compared with 3.9 months (95% CI, 5.6-3.7) for
patients treated with sorafenib, lead investigator Brian I.
Rini, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute,
reported. Tivozanib treatment was associated with a significant
27% decreased risk of disease progression (hazard
ratio 0.73; P =.02) compared with sorafenib therapy. In addition,
the PFS rate at 2 years was higher in the tivozanib
compared with the sorafenib arm (18% vs 5%). Furthermore,
tivozanib-treated patients had a higher objective
response rate compared with sorafenib recipients (18% vs
8%).
Grade 3 treatment-related adverse events occurred in
44% of patients in the tivozanib group and 55% of the
sorafenib arm. In addition, a smaller proportion of patients
in tivozanib group required a dose reduction compared
with the sorafenib group (24% vs 38%) or interruption of
treatment (48% vs 63%) due to an adverse event. Tivozanibtreated
patients also were less likely to discontinue treatment
(21% vs 29%).
Tivozanib has been included as a first-line treatment
recommendation for advanced RCC in new European Society
of Medical Oncology (ESMO) clinical practice guidelines
for RCC, published last month. Tivozanib is recommended
as a first-line treatment option for people with advanced
clear cell RCC of good (favorable) risk or intermediate risk.
After the CARMENA Trial: Do Patients
Still Want a Nephrectomy? The Answer Is Yes
Conducted over eight years, enrolling 450 patients at
multiple centers in Europe, the CARMENA (Cancer du Rein
Metastatique Nephrectomie et Antiangiongeniques) trial
demonstrated that systemic therapy using sunitinib alone
is not worse than cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) plus
sunitinib in metastatic RCC in an intention to treat analysis
(hazard ratio HR): 0.89, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.71-
1.10) But what do patients think? Are their concerns in line
with the physicians who manage their disease?
The Kidney Cancer Research Alliance (KCCure) conducted
a survey among kidney cancer patients. The short
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/(ClinicalTrials.gov