New combo therapy for advanced kidney cancer

Looks as though there may be a new standard of care for metastatic kidney cancer: Avelumab, a PD-L1 immunotherapy sold by Pfizer and Merck under the trade name Bavencio, significantly improved the progression-free survival of advanced renal cancer patients when combined with chemotherapy agent axitinib, according to a new (Pfizer-and Merck-sponsored) study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Control patients were treated with the chemotherapy drug sunitinib, which to date has been the standard treatment for the disease. Tumors shrank at a higher rate with the combination therapy than with sunitinib, researchers found.

"This is certainly better than sunitinib — hopefully this will lead to Food and Drug Administration approval soon," the study’s senior author said in a statement.