In a phase 3 clinical trial, CLEAR/KEYNOTE-581, researchers randomly assigned patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC) to receive either lenvatinib and pembrolizumab (L/P) or sunitinib, a standard treatment. Results showed that L/P significantly delayed tumor progression compared with sunitinib. While overall survival was slightly longer with L/P, this difference wasn’t statistically significant. However, at 36 months, a significantly higher percentage of patients in the L/P group were still alive. Patients receiving L/P were also less likely to need further anticancer therapy, with fewer requiring the same type of drugs used in sunitinib treatment.
These findings confirmed that the combination of L/P offers significant benefits over sunitinib in treating aRCC, leading researchers to conclude that L/P is the favorable first-line treatment in aRCC.
Reference: Stenger M. Final Overall Survival Analysis of CLEAR/KEYNOTE-581: Lenvatinib/Pembrolizumab vs Sunitinib in First-Line Treatment of Advanced RCC.The ASCO Post.Updated January 22, 2024. Accessed February 2, 2024. https://ascopost.com/news/january-2024/final-overall-survival-analysis-of-clearkeynote-581-lenvatinibpembrolizumab-vs-sunitinib-in-first-line-treatment-of-advanced-rcc/
