Next Steps in Non-Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma Research

Thomas Hutson, DO, PharmD, director of the Urologic Oncology Program and co-chair of the Urologic Cancer Research and Treatment Center at Baylor University Medical Center and professor of medicine, Texas A&M College of Medicine, suggests the areas new research for non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) should explore.

According to Hutson, the next step in research for non-clear cell RCC should focus on further understanding the pathogenesis for each histologic subtype. While newer generation drugs such as lenvatinib (Lenvima) and everolimus (Zortress) show higher activity than earlier generation drugs, new targeted therapies are needed if the efficacy in non-clear cell RCC is ongoing to rival the efficacy seen in clear cell RCC.

Hutson says that these newer-generation drugs will most likely not be studied in large phase 3 trials as these histologies are rare. It would take years to accrue enough patients for regulatory approval, explains Hutson. The best thing to do, he says, is too keep researching and make the data publicly available to health care providers in order to help them make informed treatment decisions.