NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In patients with advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC), an optimal sitravatinib dose combined with a fixed dose of nivolumab improved outcomes in a phase 1-2 trial.
"A surprising finding was that patients treated with the higher dose of sitravatinib (120 mg) consistently reported better quality of life after three months of therapy compared with patients treated with the lower dose (80 mg)," Dr. Pavlos Msaouel of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston told Reuters Health by email. "For this reason, we ended up choosing 120 mg as the initial sitravatinib dose for the further development in clinical trials."
"Most early phase trials establish drug dosage based only on toxicity," he noted. "However, our trial established the dose of sitravatinib in combination with nivolumab after taking into account toxicity, efficacy, and quality of life. This...approach yields more reliable dosage decisions for further development, and can be used for early drug development across disease settings."
However, he added, "The combination is still under investigation and should not be used outside of clinical trials. Further phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials are ongoing to investigate the combination...across different cancers."
Cancer immunotherapy with anti-PD-L1 antibodies can benefit and even cure some patients with advanced ccRCC, but many patients end up relapsing over time, Dr.
