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The approval of immunotherapeutic agents and immunotherapy-based combination strategies in recent years has revolutionized the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (aRCC). Nivolumab, a programmed death 1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor monoclonal antibody, was approved as monotherapy in 2015 for aRCC after treatment with a VEGF-targeting agent. In April 2018, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab, a CTLA-4 inhibitor, was approved for intermediate- and poor-risk, previously untreated patients with aRCC. Then, in 2019, combinations therapies consisting of pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1) or avelumab (anti-PD-ligand (L) 1) with axitinib (a VEGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor) were also approved to treat aRCC and are likely to produce dramatic shifts in the therapeutic landscape. To address the rapid advances in immunotherapy options for patients with aRCC, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) reconvened its Cancer Immunotherapy Guidelines (CIG) Renal Cell Carcinoma Subcommittee and tasked it with generating updated consensus recommendations for the treatment of patients with this disease.

Authors: Brian I. Rini, Dena Battle, Robert A. Figlin, Daniel J. George, Hans Hammers, Tom Hutson, Eric Jonasch, Richard W. Joseph, David F. McDermott, Robert J. Motzer, Sumanta K. Pal, Allan J. Pantuck, David I. Quinn, Virginia Seery, Martin H. Voss, Christopher G. Wood, Laura S. Wood and Michael B. Atkins

Published as a position article and guidelines in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer (2019) 7:354.

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