This study looked at real world information from patients with kidney cancer that had spread (metastatic kidney cancer) and who had been treated with combination immunotherapies and an immunotherapy plus a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) as a first-line treatment and then gone on to have a second-line treatment for their kidney cancer.

There were 173 patients in the study, which showed no significant differences in survival time between a combination of two immunotherapy medicines, and a combination of an immunotherapy plus a TKI medicine in the first line after taking a second line of treatment (38 versus 37 months).

Further research is needed or a biomarker to help personalise these treatments. Without a biomarker, doctors recommend immunotherapy combinations or immunotherapy/TKI combinations based on the clinical features of the patient, including the type of tumour, the patient’s cancer risk, other existing conditions/diseases, and patient preference. Thos trial using real world data (as opposed to clinical trial data) supports this method of individualising first-line treatment until a biomarker is found.

Read more in Practice Update here