Dr. Xu on Future Developments in Kidney Cancer

Wenxin Xu, MD, physician, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, instructor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses future considerations for the treatment of patients with kidney cancer. 

The kidney cancer field is moving quickly, with several drugs gaining FDA approval for metastatic or adjuvant kidney cancer, Xu says. Going forward, determining the best combinations of therapies will be important, as, with several classes of medications to choose from, combination therapies need to have synergistic efficacy without excessive toxicity, Xu explains.

Additionally, these new classes of agents will need to be integrated into the treatment paradigm, Xu emphasizes. For instance, belzutifan (Welireg), which targets HIF-2α, is being compared with everolimus (Afinitor) in the refractory setting in the phase 3 MK-6482-005 trial (NCT04195750), which, if positive, may lead to the approval of belzutifan as a second- or third-line therapy, Xu says. Belzutifan may also demonstrate a benefit in the first-line setting, and additional ongoing trials with this agent and others will inform the future of kidney cancer care, Xu concludes.