According to new research, using an existing drug for late-stage kidney cancer in an earlier stage of the disease could reduce the risk of cancer recurrence by a third.
The conclusions of the phase III trial are presented today at the congress of the European Association of Urology (UAE21). There is a high risk of kidney cancer back, after surgery to remove tumors, but there is currently no treatment to help prevent it.
The KEYNOTE study included just under 1,000 kidney patients cancer to whom it had been operated on. Half of them received immunotherapy drugs pembrolizumab, or pembro, and the other half a placebo.
Pembro is used to treat several cancers, including late-stage kidney cancer, where the disease has spread to other organs. The international trial in 20 countries was the first time the drug was used with patients in an early stage of the disease.
The team found that for two years, patients with pembro were one-third less likely to see their disease again than those on placebo. Follow-up with patients continues, to determine the impact of treatment survival rates for a period of five years.
The study also showed that the side effects of the drug were similar to those normally expected with cancer treatment.
The study’s co-researcher, Professor Thomas Powles of the Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University in London, said: “These first data from the trial are very promising, with a clear reduction in recurrent disease. in patients with pact.There are also signs that the drug may improve survival rates, but we cannot be sure for a few more years.We hope that this trial, once completed, will be a strong case for this drug be approved by a drug regulator “.
Promising combination immunotherapy for advanced bladder cancer
Professor Powles today presents further conclusions in UAE21 from another trial, which also involves a new use for an existing anti-cancer immunotherapy drug. The DANUBE study looked at durvalumab in patients with late-stage bladder cancer, where disease it had already spread to other parts of the body. Durvalumab is widely used as a lung cancer treatment, especially in the US.
More than 1,000 patients were recruited for the trial, with one-third receiving durvalumab, one-third receiving durvalumab combined with a new immunotherapy drug, tremelimumab, and one-third receiving standard chemotherapy.
They found that, in general, immunotherapeutic drugs did not increase survival more than standard chemotherapy.
However, in exploratory analyzes, in a subset of patients (those who had a high level of a specific biomarker (PD-L1) and were not eligible for the cisplatin chemotherapy drug), durvalumab activity was increased by the addition of tremilimumab.
Professor Powles said: “Although we did not compare durvalumab with other licensed immune therapies in this clinical situation, we could see that the new combination of immunotherapies showed some additional promise that justified a more detailed look.”
Two large randomized controls essays they are now underway, trying durvalumab and tremelimumab against the existing immunotherapy treatments, in both end-stage and early-stage bladder cancer, in patients with high levels of the LD-P1 biomarker who cannot be given cisplatin. The results of the first trial are expected to be reported later this year, while the other continues to recruit.
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European Association of Urology
Citation: New Use of Old Drugs Reduces Risk of Returning Kidney Cancer (2021, July 11) Recovered July 11, 2021 at https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-07-drug-kidney- cancer.html
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