Dr. Motzer on the TIVO-3 Trial Examining Tivozanib in Advanced RCC

Robert J. Motzer, MD, medical oncologist, Kidney Cancer Section head, and Jack and Dorothy Byrne Chair in Clinical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the results of the phase 3 TIVO-3 trial with tivozanib (Fotivda) versus sorafenib (Nexavar) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

One of the pressing questions following the phase 3 TIVO-1 trial had to do with the survival benefit observed with tivozanib versus sorafenib, says Motzer. These questions mainly stemmed from the lack of survival benefit seen in the TIVO-1 trial, as well as the trend toward survival improvement with sorafenib, which was due, in part, to the subsequent therapy used in the sorafenib cohort, explains Motzer.

In the TIVO-3 trial, investigators compared with use of tivozanib with sorafenib, only in a heavily pretreated patient population, says Motzer. Unlike the TIVO-1 trial, no crossover was built into the TIVO-3 trial; it was 1 of the first phase 3 trials to examine this RCC-specific agent in heavily pretreated patients.

Results showed that tivozanib resulted in a longer PFS compared with sorafenib, at 5.6 months versus 3.9 months, respectively. The agent was also found to have a better safety profile. However, the survival between the 2 arms were very similar, concludes Motzer.