Cancerwise

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the scientific name for kidney cancer. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma accounts for about 75% of all new kidney cancer cases diagnosed annually in the U.S. 

The remaining 25% fall under the umbrella term of “non-clear cell kidney cancer.” These include many different subtypes, such as papillary kidney cancer, chromophobe kidney cancer, renal medullary carcinoma, collecting duct kidney cancer, and translocation kidney cancer, to name but a few. 

If you’ve recently been diagnosed with kidney cancer, it’s important to understand exactly which type you have. Why? 

“Because each kidney cancer is managed and treated very differently,” explains Pavlos Msaouel, M.D., Ph.D., a genitourinary medical oncologist who specializes in the treatment of renal medullary carcinoma.  

Msaouel and Andrew Hahn, M.D., explored this topic in a recent Cancerwise podcast. Here are three highlights.  

Traditional chemotherapy is not normally used to treat renal cell carcinoma

Hahn notes that first-line treatment is pretty straightforward now for patients with renal cell carcinoma. At MD Anderson, they will likely receive one of four different drug combinations. These are:  

• nivolumab plus cabozantinib  
• nivolumab plus ipilimumab 
• pembrolizumab plus axitinib 
• pembrolizumab plus lenvatinib 

Each combination includes at least one type of immunotherapy called a PD-1 checkpoint inhibitor, such as nivolumab. The other half is either a different type of immunotherapy — such as a CTLA-4 immune checkpoint inhibitor — or a targeted therapy drug, such as axitinib.  

“There’s really no role for classic chemotherapy anymore in the treatment of metastatic clear cell carcinoma,” Hahn explains. “These new drugs activate the immune system in a different way to recognize and attack the kidney cancer.”