Avelumab plus axitinib versus sunitinib in advanced renal cell carcinoma: biomarker analysis of the phase 3 JAVELIN Renal 101 trial

Robert J. Motzer, Paul B. Robbins, Thomas Powles, Laurence Albiges, John B. Haanen, James Larkin, Xinmeng Jasmine Mu, Keith A. Ching, Motohide Uemura, Sumanta K. Pal, Boris Alekseev, Gwenaelle Gravis, Matthew T. Campbell, Konstantin Penkov, Jae Lyun Lee, Subramanian Hariharan, Xiao Wang, Weidong Zhang, Jing Wang, Aleksander ChudnovskyAlessandra di Pietro, Amber C. Donahue, Toni K. Choueiri

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    325 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We report on molecular analyses of baseline tumor samples from the phase 3 JAVELIN Renal 101 trial (n = 886; NCT02684006), which demonstrated significantly prolonged progression-free survival (PFS) with first-line avelumab + axitinib versus sunitinib in advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC). We found that neither expression of the commonly assessed biomarker programmed cell death ligand 1 (PD-L1) nor tumor mutational burden differentiated PFS in either study arm. Similarly, the presence of FcɣR single nucleotide polymorphisms was unimpactful. We identified important biological features associated with differential PFS between the treatment arms, including new immunomodulatory and angiogenesis gene expression signatures (GESs), previously undescribed mutational profiles and their corresponding GESs, and several HLA types. These findings provide insight into the determinants of response to combined PD-1/PD-L1 and angiogenic pathway inhibition and may aid in the development of strategies for improved patient care in aRCC.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1733-1741
    Number of pages9
    JournalNature Medicine
    Volume26
    Issue number11
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2020

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