Potential With Cabozantinib Plus Nivolumab in Advanced RCC

Bradley McGregor, MD, clinical director, Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, senior physician, instructor in medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses the goals of the phase III CheckMate-9ER trial, which is evaluating cabozantinib (Cabometyx) combined with nivolumab (Opdivo) in previously untreated patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

There has been a revolution in RCC treatment over the last couple of years, starting with the immunotherapy combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab (Yervoy) in the CheckMate-214 trial. Cabozantinib is an intriguing multikinase inhibitor that has also demonstrated benefit in patients with both treatment-naïve and previously treated disease, McGregor says.

Building upon the activity with these types of agents in the frontline setting, the CheckMare-9ER trial is looking at the combination of cabozantinib and nivolumab compared with sunitinib (Sutent) to determine if the combination can improve response rates and outcomes in the frontline setting.