Novel drug targets tumor growth in advanced kidney cancer
Scientists report promising activity of a novel drug that targets a key molecular driver of clear cell renal cell carcinoma in patients with metastatic disease. Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report a response rate of 24 percent across all risk categories of patients given an oral first-in-class agent that targets hypoxia inducible factor (HIF) 2-a, which promotes new blood vessel growth that fuels kidney tumors. Based on these findings, a phase III trial has been launched. “A new drug [MK-6482] as a single agent showing an overall response rate of 24 percent across all risk categories — poor, intermediate, and good, and in a heavily refractory population — is quite promising,” said Toni Choueiri, first author of the abstract. Choueiri is director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology and the Jerome and Nancy Kohlberg Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. The drug targets a component of the body’s mechanism for sensing oxygen levels and turning...