Dr. Uzzo on Potential of Adjuvant Therapy in Patients With RCC

Robert G. Uzzo, MD, chair, Surgical Oncology, G. Willing "Wing" Pepper Chair in Cancer Research, senior vice-president, Physician Services, president, Fox Chase Cancer Center Medical Group, Inc., professor of Surgery, Temple University Health System, Fox Chase Cancer Center, discusses recent outcomes of adjuvant therapy as seen in clinical trials for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The field of adjuvant therapy for kidney cancer is rapidly evolving, Uzzo explains. There have been 2 decades worth of clinical trial research looking at this area, none of which have had practice-changing outcomes. Currently, for resectable high-risk patients with kidney cancer, there is an "X" percent chance for recurrence, he says, but there is no way to decrease that chance. Therefore, many trials are looking at this area to change outcomes for patients.

One recent trial in this area was the ASSURE (E2805) study, which Uzzo was a urology principal investigator on. This was a negative trial that compared sunitinib (Sutent) to sorafenib (Nexavar) to placebo in approximately 1900 patients.

Additionally, the S-TRAC trial explored sunitinib in patients with high-risk clear cell RCC. These findings showed an improvement in disease-free survival, but it was not statistically significant for overall survival.

Though there is a question on whether or not clinical trials looking at adjuvant therapy for RCC would accrue patients, the answer is clearly yes, Uzzo concludes.