Dr. Hammers on the Future of Treatments for RCC

Hans J. Hammers, MD, PhD, associate professor, Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center, discusses the future of treatments for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

It is an exciting time in kidney cancer, explains Hammers. Ever since the approval of nivolumab (Opdivo), checkpoint inhibitors have continued to see excitement. However, the question remains to be: what is next for these treatments?

Nivolumab has shown durable response rates of around 20% but it is not enough to effectively treat patients with immunotherapy, states Hammers. Therefore, this has been looked at in combination with targeted agents, such as VEGF inhibitors.