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The combination of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-directed and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR)-directed therapies has not been very successful for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has shown some success in non-clear cell RCC.
Researchers combined the VEGF-directed drug, bevacizumab, with the mTOR-directed drug, everolimus, in a group of 35 patients with metastatic non-clear-cell RCC who had not received any prior treatment. Among 34 evaluable patients, the median progression-free survival was 11 months, with a response rate of 29%. These encouraging results were due to the effect of the combination of drugs in patients with papillary RCC or patients with ‘unclassified’ RCC with papillary features.
The researchers concluded that investigators should ‘band together’ to conduct more clinical trials to prospectively assess treatments for non-clear cell RCC.
