Pedro Barata, MD, MSc: Hello, and welcome to this OncLive® My Treatment Approach program titled “Treatment Sequencing in Advanced RCC: From Evidence to Clinical Practice.” I’m Dr Pedro Barata, an associate professor of medicine at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio. I’m happy to be joined by my colleague and friend, Dr Benjamin Garmezy. I’d like to invite Dr Garmezy to introduce himself.

Benjamin Garmezy, MD: Thanks. My name is Ben Garmezy. I’m the assistant director of genitourinary [GU] research at Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, and a practicing medical oncologist with Tennessee Oncology. I’m helping lead the GU research program for our national network.

Pedro Barata, MD, MSc: Thank you, Dr Garmezy. It’s a pleasure to do this with you. As you know, we’ll be discussing how we approach treatment sequencing in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma [RCC]. The goal is to discuss recent data updates and how we apply them in clinical practice. Let’s get started.

Benjamin Garmezy, MD: Dr Barata, please provide a brief overview of renal cell carcinoma.

Pedro Barata, MD, MSc: Kidney cancer isn’t the most common type of cancer. It’s about No. 12, and we estimate 80,000 adults are diagnosed in the United States with kidney cancer. We’re talking about primary tumors in the kidney, so RCC. Despite all the treatments that we’re going to be talking about today, close to 14,000 patients will ultimately succumb to the disease. Being on top of the novel therapies, treatment strategies, sequencing options, and patient selection is critical as we address patients, especially those with stage IV or advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Benjamin Garmezy, MD: Those are great points. The next follow-up question is, what is the general prognosis? What percentage of patients are being diagnosed with localized [disease] right away vs advanced? How does that affect their overall trajectory? What can they expect clinically?

Pedro Barata, MD, MSc: That’s a fantastic question. Many factors play into this. To answer your point about the survival rate, it changes dramatically if you’re talking about patients with stage I, which is very localized disease, or more locally advanced [disease], or patients who have nodal involvement. Patients who present with distant metastases are stage IV. Prognosis is measured depending on the stage, and about two-thirds of people who are diagnosed with kidney cancer have localized disease. The 5-year survival rate for those patients is way over 90%. If we’re talking about cases where the cancer has spread to surrounding tissues or organs, including lymph nodes, the survival rate of 5 years drops to about two-thirds of patients, close to 70%. Finally, if the cancer has spread with spots of distant disease, then we’re talking about 10% to 15%. So it’s important.

Transcript edited for clarity.