This study looked at real world data from people with kidney cancer that had spread (metastatic kidney cancer) and who had been treated with nivolumab or cabozantinib as a second- or third-line medication. The study looked at survival times with each medicine.

The average overall survival time for patients treated with nivolumab or cabozantinib as a second-line medication was 28.4 and 16.8 months, respectively. The average time to when the medicine stopped working and the cancer started growing again (progression-free survival) was 6.6 months for both nivolumab and cabozantinib when given as second-line medications.

As third-line medications, average overall survival time for nivolumab and cabozantinib were 27 and 16.6 months respectively. Average progression-free survival time was and 5.2 and 7.5 months, respectively.

The average overall survival time when nivolumab was given as the first medication followed by cabozantinib compared with cabozantinib followed by nivolumab was 28.8 versus 19.9 months, whereas the average progression-free survival time was similar at 5.7 months.

This study provides some real-world data showing that most patients were given nivolumab as a second-line medication. However, it is likely that the use of nivolumab and cabozantinib as second- or third-line medication for patients not responding to first-line treatments might be limited due to the success of new immunotherapy combinations. This study provides some useful information for patients who do receive these medicines as second- or third-line treatments. In addition, treatment outcomes with both nivolumab followed by carbozantinib and carbozantinib followed by nivolumab are comparable.

Read more in Targeted Oncology here