Insight

Susanna F. Greer: Outsmarting Kidney Cancer – A New Triple Therapy Approach

Susanna F. Greer and Pavlos Msaouel

Jan 20, 2025, 16:30

Susanna F. Greer: Outsmarting Kidney Cancer – A New Triple Therapy Approach

Susanna F. Greer, Chief Scientific Officer at The V Foundation for Cancer Research and Leading Scientific Strategist and Cancer Researcher and Communicator, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Over 81,000 new cases of kidney cancer are diagnosed in the U.S. each year, and this cancer type remains one of the top causes of cancer-related deaths.

While treatments have advanced, many patients still face an aggressive disease that resists standard therapies.

This is where smarter strategies come in.

This week I am sharing a very smart clinical trial in advanced kidney cancer – a study led by the V Foundation grantee Pavlos Msaouel, at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

For patients with advanced kidney cancer, treatment is a game of strategy, as cancer cells often find ways to evade treatment, and we need smart combinations of therapies to stay ahead. In this recent phase 1 clinical trial, Dr. Msaouel and colleagues tested a powerful triple therapy approach designed to break through cancer’s defenses.

Susanna F. Greer

Here’s their three-pronged attack:

Step 1: Nivolumab (a checkpoint inhibitor)

Nivolumab removes the brakes on the immune system, helping it recognize and attack cancer cells more effectively.

Step 2: Ipilimumab (a second checkpoint inhibitor)

Ipilimumab works alongside nivolumab to boost immune system activity even further, activating key immune cells to sustain the attack.

Step 3: Sitravatinib (a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, or TKI)

Think of Sitravatinib as a way of cutting off cancer’s escape routes; this drug blocks signals that tumors use to survive and resist treatment.

The results of this triple-therapy?

Nearly half of patients (45.5%) saw their tumors shrink.

More than 8 in 10 patients (86.4%) had their cancer at least temporarily controlled.

One-year survival was 80.8%, a promising signal for this early-phase trial, but the goal is always longer, better quality life.

Why I love this study –

Some patients don’t respond well to standard treatments. Kidney cancer survival rates drop drastically when it spreads beyond the kidney.

For localized kidney cancer, the five-year survival rate is 93%, for metastatic kidney cancer, the five-year survival rate is only 18%. That’s why studies like this, that target advanced cases, are so critical.

Larger trials are needed, but this study highlights the power of combining therapies to outmaneuver cancer’s tricks.

And, breakthroughs like this only happen because of investment in cancer research. Let’s keep pushing for better treatments, longer lives, and real hope.

Find the Msaouel lab at Pavlos Msaouel, MD Anderson Cancer Center and read about their trial here.”