Kidney cancer research includes IO/targeted combinations, adjuvant strategies, and risk-adapted approaches in clear-cell and non-clear-cell RCC.
PATHFINDER 2, a prospective, interventional cohort study of 35,878 adults aged 50 and older with no clinical suspicion of cancer, evaluated the performance and safety of a blood-based multi-cancer early detection (MCED) test that analyzes cell-free DNA methylation patterns to detect a shared cancer signal and predict its tissue of origin.
The phase 2 RADICAL trial (Alliance A031801) tested whether adding the bone-targeted radiopharmaceutical radium-223 to cabozantinib would reduce skeletal morbidity in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) with bone metastases. The study closed early for futility after a prespecified interim analysis.
A registry-based analysis of 11,681 US interventional cancer trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov between 2008 and 2024 found that industry sponsors now outnumber federal sponsors nearly 5 to 1 (4.53-to-1 overall), with the ratio widening from 2.72-to-1 in 2008–2012 to 6.44-to-1 in 2019–2024.
In a correlative biomarker analysis of the HCRN GU16-260 trial, non-exhausted CD8+ T cells were linked to higher response rates and longer progression-free survival in treatment-naive metastatic clear-cell RCC treated with first-line nivolumab.