CheckMate 025, a phase 3 clinical trial, compared the anti-programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) antibody, nivolumab, with the standard treatment, everolimus, in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. CheckMate 025 is the first clinical trial to show an improvement in overall survival in these patients for any immune checkpoint inhibitor agent. The survival benefit was seen in patients regardless of the extent of the PD-1 ligand expression in their tumours.
Presented at the European Cancer Conference (ECC) 2015 by Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.