Nivolumab plus Ipilimumab for Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma

For more than a decade, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors (VEGFR-TKIs) such as suninitib and pazopanib have been the standard-of-care treatment for patients with metastatic renal cancer. Recently, nivolumab — a programmed death 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor antibody — was shown to improve survival in advanced renal cell cancer patients previously treated with VEGFR-TKIs (NEJM JW Oncol Hematol Nov 2015 and N Engl J Med 2015; 373:1803).

Now, an international group of investigators have conducted an industry-sponsored, randomized, open-label, phase III trial comparing standard dose and schedule with sunitinib versus combination immunotherapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab in 1096 patients who had untr…