Dr. Choueiri on Next Steps for Treatment in RCC

Toni Choueiri, MD, director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, director, Kidney Cancer Center, Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses next steps for treatment in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The last decade has seen many breakthroughs in the treatment of RCC, with several targeted agents, checkpoint inhibitors, and combination therapies earning FDA approval. Although this is great news for patients, Choueiri says, the complex landscape has to be made more clear. Therapy must also become more customized for patients and this starts with the identification of effective biomarkers.

Management of RCC is moving in a direction much like what has been observed with breast cancer, where various treatment options have risen the bar very high, Choueiri notes. Testing new combinations means sometimes challenging the gold standard of care, which is always difficult, he adds. Tolerability and cost are going to be important factors to consider when choosing the right approach for each patient. There is not much of a difference in cost between most checkpoint inhibitors, and these agents are here to stay in the RCC treatment landscape.