Commentary
Video
Dr. Merchan on findings from biomarker analyses of the CLEAR trial in RCC
Author(s):
“The results of the study showed that regardless of any biomarkers, the combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib was superior or associated with a better median progression-free survival compared to sunitinib,” says Jaime R. Merchan, MD.
In this video, Jaime R. Merchan, MD, highlights the background of the CLEAR trial (NCT02811861) and shares findings from the analysis, “Biomarker analyses in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) from the phase 3 CLEAR trial,” which was presented at the 2024 American Society for Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Merchan is a professor of medicine, the co-leader of the translational and clinical oncology research program, and the director of the phase 1 clinical trials program at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami in Florida.
Video Transcript:
Could you describe the background for the CLEAR trial?
The CLEAR trial was a randomized phase 3 trial for patients with treatment naïve metastatic clear cell renal carcinoma that compared 3 regimens: pembrolizumab and lenvatinib, everolimus and lenvatinib, and sunitinib. In a nutshell, this trial, which was published several years ago in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that the combination of lenvatinib and pembrolizumab was superior to the control sunitinib in patients with advanced disease with an improvement in median progression-free survival and overall survival.
What were the key findings from this analysis?
This study was a biomarker analysis of the CLEAR trial trying to determine any correlation between progression-free survival in the pembrolizumab and lenvatinib vs sunitinib group in correlation with different biomarkers including PD-L1 expression, gene expression signatures, and also genomic abnormalities.
The results of the study showed that regardless of any biomarkers, the combination of pembrolizumab and lenvatinib was superior or associated with a better median progression-free survival compared to sunitinib. Both [in the] expression of PD-L1, different genomic signatures or gene expression analyses, and also genomic alterations, specifically mutations common [in] renal cell carcinoma in gene alterations, the study showed no clear correlation of any benefit with any of these biomarkers.
This transcription has been edited for clarity.
