Laurence Albigès, MD, PhD, on Key Findings From CheckMate 214 of Nivolumab Plus Ipilimumab in Advanced RCC

During the 2022 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, CancerNetwork® spoke with Laurence Albigès, MD, PhD, a medical oncologist and head of the Genitourinary Unit at Gustave Roussy in Villejuif, about her key takeaways from the 5-year updated analysis from phase 3 CheckMate 214 trial (NCT02231749), assessing the use of nivolumab (Opdivo) plus ipilimumab (Yervoy) in treatment-naïve advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma.¹

Findings from the study highlighted an overall survival (OS) benefit with the combination regimen vs sunitinib (Sutent). Importantly, the benefit appeared to be sustained over time, according to Albigès.

Transcript:

CheckMate 214 was first reported in 2018.² The key message is that for the first time, we have challenged the use of a single-agent VEGF targeting strategy, namely sunitinib, as the comparator arm with a combination of 2 immune checkpoint inhibitors, nivolumab plus ipilimumab. We do know that in RCC, VEGF targeting is very important. This trial was very innovative because it [examined] having a strong and potent immune checkpoint inhibitor combination as a frontline strategy.

The key finding is that this trial demonstrated an [OS] benefit in favor of nivolumab plus ipilimumab. This benefit in terms of OS has been reported with a minimum follow up of 17 months, but [longer follow-up shows this has been] sustained over time. We had 30 months of follow up, 42 months of follow up, [and] now 60 months of follow up with a very consistent hazard ratio [for OS] of 0.68, clearly favoring the doublet immune checkpoint regimen over single-agent sunitinib.

References

1. Tannir NM, Signoretti S, Choueiri TK, et al. Efficacy and safety of nivolumab plus ipilimumab (N+I) versus sunitinib (S) for first-line treatment of patients with advanced sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma (sRCC) in the phase 3 CheckMate 214 trial with extended 5-year minimum follow-up. J Clin Oncol. 2022;40(suppl 6):352. doi:10.1200/JCO.2022.40.6_suppl.352
2. Motzer RJ, Tannir NM, McDermott DF, et al. Nivolumab plus Ipilimumab versus Sunitinib in Advanced Renal-Cell Carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2018;378(14):1277-1290. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa1712126