Analyzing New Data from KEYNOTE-427 in Patients With RCC

Scott Tykodi, MD, PhD, a physician with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, and associate professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at University of Washington Medicine, and an associate professor in the Clinical Research Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, discusses recent findings in the KEYNOTE-427 trial (NCT02853344) of pembrolizumab (Keytruda) in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

At the 2020 American Society of Clinical Oncology Virtual Scientific Program, this trial’s data cohort presented biomarker discovery to show if gene expression is associated with clinical outcomes, according to Tykodi. The study was looking at the overall response rate, as well as progression-free survival (PFS). The investigators used RNA-sequencing, although tissue was not available in every patient. For patients who had tissue available, the investigators defined coherent biological pathways through organized gene sequence clusters.

There were 11 discreet pathways that were explored in this dataset. One of the 11 pathways in these patients with RCC had a positive association for overall response. A T-cell inflamed gene panel had 18 gene sequences that were clustered for that signature and it showed a higher incidence of response rate, but it did not show a statistical increase in PFS, Tykodi says. The other 10 evaluated pathways had a strong association with response rate.

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