Dr. Kaur on race-specific outcomes with ICIs in renal cell carcinoma

In this video, Jasmeet Kaur, MD, shares the background and key findings from the study, “Comparison of outcomes between patients of African and European descent with metastatic renal cell carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors,” which was presented at the 2024 ASCO Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, California. Kaur is a second-year hematology/oncology fellow at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Video Transcript:

Could you describe the background for this study?

The first-line treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma is immune checkpoint inhibitor in combination with tyrosine kinase inhibitor or another immune checkpoint inhibitor, or ICI. This is standard based on phase 3 clinical studies. What we see in these phase 3 trials [is that] there was underrepresentation of Black patients. Also, the prior studies on tumor microenvironment, which studied the immune gene signature was lower, the expression was lower in African American patients as compared to Caucasian. Our hypothesis for this study was that outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitor would be different or lower in African patients as compared to Caucasian. So, we did a retrospective study using Flatiron database to study the outcome differences between these 2 populations using standard frontline treatment.

What were the key findings from this study?

The primary aim of the study was looking for real-world progression-free survival differences. Initially, we did a separate analysis for Caucasian and African American [patients]. We compared ICI treatment vs sunitinib alone. We found ICI treatment was superior in both separate groups, in both Black as well as in Caucasian patients. Then, we compared outcome differences between these 2 races. There were no differences in outcome of ICI-based treatment in these 2 different populations. Using adjusted hazard analysis, the results were not significant. We should not differentiate treatment based on race. At this time, we should offer similar treatment to both African American and Caucasian patients.

This transcription has been edited for clarity.