Immune Therapy Combination Treatment Helps Patients With Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma Live Better Lives

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This high efficacy and low toxicity allow the combination treatment to provide a significant quality-of-life benefit to patients.

Research from Northwestern Medicine found that a new immune therapy combination treatment was able to not only extend patients with cancer’s lives more effectively than other treatments, but it was also less toxic to patients’ overall health than other drugs on the market. This high efficacy and low toxicity allow the combination treatment to provide a significant quality-of-life benefit to patients.

“Historically in cancer, most new treatments that extend survival come at a cost,” said lead study author David Cella, chair of the department of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, in a press release. “In this study, we found it’s actually easier on patients, so it has the double benefit.”

The study conducted at Northwestern Medicine follows an earlier study from the New England Journal of Medicine, the results of which showed a combination chemotherapy treatment of nivolumab plus cabozantinib was able to double the survival rate of patients with previously untreated advanced renal-cell carcinoma when compared to the current standard first-line treatment with sunitinib.

The team examined patient-reported symptoms and adverse effects (AEs) from the previous study and found that those who were given the new treatment of nivolumab plus cabozantinib reported their symptoms were stable or had improved while on the treatment, while those taking the current standard first-line treatment of sunitinib reported a deterioration in their health status and difficulties managing their experience of AEs.

“Immune therapy is revolutionizing the treatment of advanced kidney cancer,” Cella said in the press release. “For the first time in decades, we are seeing benefits to both survival and quality of life with these new treatments. People with kidney cancer have more effective treatment options than ever before. Not only are they living longer, they are living better.”

REFERENCE

In cancer treatment, quality of life matters more and more. EurekAlert! January 12, 2022. Accessed January 12, 2022. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/939726

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