Dr. Thomas Powles from Barts Cancer Institute, London, UK, talks to ecancer with several leading renal oncologists at ECC 2013 held in Amsterdam between 27 September to 1 October 2013. 

The panel discusses the relatively few studies looking at new agents in the first-line setting of renal cell cancer and looks at future developments in this area.  What are the new targets? How can we optimise outcomes with the therapies we currently have? How can we better manage toxicities? How can we better improve quality of life?

There is discussion on managing patient expectations, particularly regarding prognosis.  New data presented at the meeting relating depth of patient response to targeted drugs to overall survival is outlined. 

Also discussed is the newly presented pivotal randomised phase III third-line GOLD trial with dovitinib (a multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor) vs. sorafenib in patients who progressed on anti-VEGF and mTOR inhibitors. The implications of these study findings are reviewed, as is the value of researching the value of existing agents in specific patient sub-populations to maximise outcomes.

Finally, the panel each shares their renal highlights from the ECC 2013 meeting.

This programme has been supported by a grant from GlaxoSmithKline.