The recurrence of kidney cancer can be reduced

Madhavi Bhatia, NIPER Guwahati

Cancer is a disease that involves abnormal growth with the potential to spread to other parts of the body. There are various treatments available for cancer surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy. There is a higher risk of kidney cancer recurrence following surgery to remove tumours, but there is currently no treatment available to prevent this. Various researches are going on to study the impact of existing drugs on the recurrence of the disease. 

The Keynote study was conducted on 1000 patients with kidney cancer who had undergone surgery. Out of 1000 patients, half of them were given immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (pembro) and the remaining half were placebo. Pembro is used to treat a number of cancers, including late-stage kidney cancer in which the disease has spread to other organs. In an international trial that was performed across 20 countries, the first-time pembro was used in patients at an early stage of the disease. The team observed that after 2 years, patients on pembro were one-third less likely to see the disease return than those on the placebo. Follow up with patients is still going on, to study the impact of the treatment on the survival rates over a 5- year period. The side effects from the drug were similar to those normally expected with other cancer treatments. According to the co-investigator of the study at Barts Cancer Institute in London, the early data from the trial were very promising, with a clear reduction in the disease recurring in patients on pembro. But this is not certain for another few years.

Another study, the DANUBE study involved 1000 patients with late-stage bladder cancer, in which a third were given durvalumab immunotherapy drug, a third were given a combination of durvalumab and tremelimumab and the remaining third received the standard chemotherapy. Overall it was found that the immunotherapy drugs did not increase survival more than the standard chemotherapy. However, in exploratory analysis, it was found that in a subset of patients (those who have raised levels of a specific biomarker (PD-L1) and were not eligible for the chemotherapy drug cisplatin) the activity of durvalumab was increased by the addition of another immunotherapy drug tremelimumab. Two large randomized controlled trials are underway, testing durvalumab and tremelimumab against the ongoing immunotherapy treatments, in both late and early-stage bladder cancer and in patients with high levels of LD-P1 biomarker to whom cisplatin cannot be given.

These two studies were presented at the European Association of Urology Congress (EAU21). According to these studies, the use of existing drugs for late-stage cancer at an earlier stage of the disease may reduce the risk of recurring cancer by one–third.

Also read: Low UVB exposure can increase risk of Colorectal Cancer

Reference:

1. “Risk of Recurring Kidney Cancer Can Be Reduced by Using Old Drug at Earlier Stage.” ANI News, https://www.aninews.in/news/health/risk-of-recurring-kidney-cancer-can-be-reduced-by-using-old-drug-at-earlier-stage20210711085131/. Accessed 11 July 2021

2. “New Use of Old Drug Reduces Risk of Kidney Cancer Returning.” EurekAlert!, https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-07/eaou-nuo070821.php. Accessed 11 July 2021

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About author- Madhavi Bhatia is currently pursuing Master of science in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from NIPER,Guwahati. Her area of interest lies in understanding the role of gene mutation in development of various diseases and to develop treatment for such diseases.