A Multifaceted Approach to Optimizing Treatment in RCC

There are different challenges for treating advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) because of the heterogeneous population, according to Moshe Ornstein, MD.

Specifically, a multifaceted approach such as investigating comorbidities, looking at prior treatment resistance, and the subsequent lines of therapy, Ornstein, a medical oncologist from the Cleveland Clinic, noted.

Patients who have received numerous lines of prior therapy may have also developed resistance to the different therapeutic options. Ornstein emphasized the importance of clinicians needing to familiarize themselves with subsequent lines of therapy, not just the first line, because of this very issue.

Transcript:

Patients with advanced RCC are a heterogeneous patient population. Many of them are going to be in their 60s or 70s and have a variety of comorbidities. When we’re taking care of these patients, we need to consider hypertension, other vascular concerns, gastrointestinal issues, and any comorbidities that might impact treatment choice or how we manage for that patient to stay on therapy for as long as possible. Keeping those comorbidities in mind is important. Some of these patients who are on therapy, even with therapies that have response rates as high as 60% to 70%, will develop treatment resistance [at some point]. For those patients, it’s important to know not [only] what the frontline therapy is with the incredible advances of immunotherapy-based combinations, but also what those refractory lines of treatment are for the patients whose cancer progresses beyond an immunotherapy-based combination.