Various clinical trials are currently being conducted as the treatment landscape continues to grow for kidney cancer. Patients and caregivers must be aware of these trials, particularly those that they can possibly join.
Trial vaccine for cancer
Here is a list of active clinical trials currently underway in the kidney cancer space:
Immunotherapy with Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) Followed by Opdivo or Opdivo with Cabometyx (cabozantinib) for Patients with Advanced Kidney Cancer
Researchers in this phase 3 trial is comparing the standard combination of Opdivo and Yervoy followed by Opdivo alone to a new treatment of Yervoy and Opdivo, followed by the combination of Opdivo and Cabometyx. These are all a part of the PDIGREE study.
Since immunotherapies such as Yervoy and Opdivo have been shown to help the body fight cancer using its own immune system, the trial, which is being done in at least 600 locations, aims to determine whether the addition of chemotherapy drug like Cabometryx, can improve outcomes.
Personalized Cancer Vaccine Plus Tecentriq (atezolizumab) Immunotherapy in Locally Advanced or Metastatic Cancer
Some cancers are considered inoperable or incurable by standard therapies. In this phase 1 study that is offered by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the researchers are investigating a personalized cancer vaccine that is made to resemble the disease of the individual, in the hopes that the immune system of the patient will attack the tumor. Some patients will get this vaccine in increasingly larger doses to know the highest do, while others will also get Tecentrig in addition to this vaccine.
This study is also enrolling patients with non-small cell lung, triple-negative breast, head and neck cancer, and bladder cancers as well as colorectal.
Opdivo in Patients Undergoing Nephrectomy
In kidney cancer, treatment sometimes involves nephrectomy, which is the removal of part or all of the kidney. The researchers who are conducting the phase 3 trial for this treatment in multiple sites around the country are examining the use of the immunotherapy Opdivo in patients with kidney cancer at two different points: before surgery, to shrink the tumor, thus reducing the amount of tissue to be removed during nephrectomy, and after surgery, to increase survival.
CDX-1140 Immunotherapy in Patients with Advanced Cancer
This phase 1 study was done to know the highest dose of the investigational immunotherapy drug CDX-1140 that can be given safely to patients. The researchers are now enrolling patients with advanced solid tumors that have grown back or continue to grow, with non-small cell lung, melanoma, bladder/urothelial, pancreatic, breast, colorectal, esophageal, gastric, liver, kidney, ovarian, head and neck or bile duct cancer.
The CDX-1140 is being examined because other drugs like it have been shown to trigger the immune system of the patient to fight against tumors, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where this trial is being done.
WST-11 Light-Activated Therapy
While photodynamic therapy can be used to treat cancer by applying laser light to a tumor after a drug is injected into the body, its side effects can often be painful and troublesome to patients. This phase 1 study being held at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is investigating a new approach called vascular-targeted photodynamic therapy, where the drug stays only in blood vessels instead of spreading to all cells, and also leaves the body faster. The trial will look at the different doses of laser light to be used in therapy for patients with persistent kidney and ureter cancer.
