Immunotherapy drug combinations extend kidney cancer survival by years INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Kidney cancer is one of the fastest-growing cancers in the U.S. Until recently, a diagnosis of advanced disease often meant just a few years to live. Now, new immunotherapy combinations are helping many patients live from 10-15 years longer than ever before. Bob Kinkead has always played the numbers; first as a talent manager counting hit songs and now counting the years he’s living with advanced kidney cancer. “I went through a couple years of really just severe pain. I thought it was golf, really.” Then, a fall sent him to the emergency room. There, an MRI revealed Stage 4 kidney cancer. “Within like the next day it was you probably need to get your affairs in order, and that’s when it really hit home.” Dr. Brian Rini, a professor at Vanderbilt Cancer Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, put Kinkead on a two-drug combination. First: an infusion of pembrolizumab. “It stimulates their immune system to fight the cancer. So that’s its mechanism of action.” That is followed up with pills called axitinib. “They choke off the blood supply to the tumor. So, they’re not attacking the tumor itself, per se, they’re attacking its blood supply.” The first long-term study of its kind showed the combination helped patients live longer and stay progression-free longer than the old standard of care. Rini said, “More patients had tumors shrink, they had disease control for a longer time.” This regimen is part of a new wave of “doublet” immunotherapy combinations. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approval five, with long-term data from many trials showing patients living years longer than ever before. Researchers say the next step is personalized care: using biomarkers to match each patient’s tumor to the best treatment. It’s not here yet, but these results bring doctors closer to that goal. For Kinkead, that means more time to do what he loves, finding new award-winning talent and also chasing a new number. “That first year when I was able to walk, I started swinging a golf club. And then that second year I actually won a golf tournament. So, today I’m getting close to single digits again.” ...read more read less