During the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)  Annual Meeting earlier this month, there was a discussion about the order medicines should be given for people with advanced kidney cancer. When a patient is diagnosed with kidney cancer that has spread, they usually have surgery to remove the cancer, followed by medication to stop the cancer from spreading further and to improve survival. The first medicines often stop working after a while, and the cancer starts to grow and spread again. Then a second medicine is given to stop progression of the disease. During this discussion, the best sequence of medicines to improve survival was discussed.

The following points were highlighted during the discussion:

  • The new immunotherapy combinations given as the first treatment after surgery have changed the sequence of medicines given for advanced kidney cancer. Clinical trials support the long-term use of these combinations
  • Currently, there are no clinical trials looking at what to do after immunotherapy combinations stop working, although there are several clinical trials ongoing
  • Guidelines recommend that a TKI that has not been used before is used as a second treatment after a combination treatment stops working.

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