Long-term follow-up data from the CheckMate-214 study of the nivolumab plus ipilimumab combination in untreated, advanced clear cell kidney cancer patients were presented at the virtual American Society for Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU) in San Francisco this weekend.

Patients were followed for at least 4 years after treatment with nivolumab plus ipilimumab or sunitinib. The proportion of patients whose cancer progressed was similar for patients treated with nivolumab/ipilimumab (54.4%) or sunitinib (52.9%). With the nivolumab/ipilimumab combination, 35.5% of progression was due to the growth of new lesions, while for sunitinib only 25.5% of progression was due to new lesions. This was more pronounced in patients whose disease had progressed after an initial response (50.7% versus 27.4%, respectively).

In this study, the pattern of tumour relapse and disease progression varied after long-term follow up of patients treated with the combination of nivolumab plus ipilimumab versus sunitinib. Progression due to the growth of new lesions occurred more often with nivolumab/ipilimumab compared to sunitinib, in particular in patients whose disease progressed after an initial response.