The combination of axitinib and avelumab had manageable toxicity and demonstrated preliminary efficacy as a front-line treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), according to results of a recent study.
More than half of patients had a response on the combination of axitinib (Inlyta), a receptor inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and avelumab (Bavencio), an anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody, investigators reported in The Lancet Oncology.
The most common treatment-related adverse event was hypertension, wrote lead author Toni K. Choueiri, MD, of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in Boston, and his colleagues.
“The combination of avelumab and axitinib in treatment-naive patients with advanced RCC had a manageable safety profile consistent with the profiles of the individual agents when administered as monotherapy, and antitumor activity was encouraging,” said Dr. Choueiri, and his colleagues.