[Immunotherapy in renal cell carcinoma: A booming clinical research]

Abstract

Context: Nivolumab, an anti-PD1 immune control point inhibitor, is the first treatment that has improved the overall survival of patients after first-line metastatic renal cell carcinoma in 2015. Over the past two years, a large number of trials on these treatments and the interest of associations are being evaluated.

Objective: In this article, we propose to summarize the clinical development of checkpoint inhibitors to assess the direction of clinical research in this area.

Documentary source: A systematic review of the literature was performed in PubMed/Medline database and Meeting Library Asco by searching for articles in French or English published on immunotherapy in renal cell carcinoma. The research was limited to abstracts and articles published from 2014 to 2017.

Selection of trials: We identified 349 publications and abstracts and selected 17 references from prospective studies.

Results: Recent data on checkpoint inhibitors, as well as their combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitors or with anti-angiogenic agents or with indoleamine 2, 3-dioxygenase 1 in renal cell carcinoma and the latest advances in vaccine therapy have been reported.

Conclusion: In 2017, immunotherapy combined with other treatments is likely to lead to a paradigm shift in the clinical management of patients. The combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab in the first line will revolutionize the therapeutic management of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Keywords: Anti-CTLA4; Anti-PD1; Anti-PDL1; Cancer du rein; Immunotherapy; Immunothérapie; Renal cell carcinoma.