What the trial was testing
The KEYNOTE-564 enrolled 994 patients with kidney cancer. The study was sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC and tracked outcomes across the full group of patients who matched the trial's eligibility profile.
It was a large trial designed to confirm whether the treatment works well enough for wider use. Trials at this stage are designed to produce evidence regulators and physicians can act on — not just observations to follow up later.
What the results showed
Pembrolizumab cut the risk of kidney cancer returning by 32% after surgery.
The New England journal of medicine · 2021 · NCT03142334
These findings — that the cancer was 32% less likely to come back after a year of treatment — were published in the The New England journal of medicine and represent the headline result of the study.
Researchers tracked outcomes across 994 patients enrolled in the trial. The result was consistent enough across the group that the team felt confident reporting it.
What this means for patients
For patients with kidney cancer, this result changes the calculus on what to ask their care team about. Whether it changes day-to-day care depends on factors like disease subtype, prior treatments, and where the patient is in their care journey.
What you can do now
If you've had surgery for kidney cancer that's likely to come back, this treatment is now an FDA-approved option. It's given through an IV every three weeks for about a year. Talk to your oncologist about whether it makes sense for your situation — especially if your cancer was caught early but had features that make it more likely to return.
Eligibility for the treatments mentioned above depends on specific test results and clinical history. Bring this summary, the trial name, and your most recent labs or pathology report to your next visit.
Open kidney cancer trials
Therapeutic Plasma Exchange With Enfortumab Vedotin and Pembrolizumab for Treatment of Bladder Cancers
This phase II trial compares therapeutic plasma exchange followed by enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab to standard of care next-line therapy for the treatment of patients with bladder or upper urinary tract cancers that have spread from where they first started (primary site) to other places in the body (metastatic) and that have not responded to previous treatment (refractory). TPE is a process that slowly removes a patient's blood through an intravenous or central line. The blood is sent through a machine that separates the plasma (the liquid part of blood) from other blood components (red cells, white cells, platelets). The plasma is then removed. The remaining blood components are combined with replacement fluid and returned to the patient's bloodstream through the intravenous or central line. Enfortumab vedotin is a monoclonal antibody, enfortumab, linked to an anticancer drug called vedotin. It works by helping the immune system to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells. Enfortumab attaches to a protein called nectin-4 on cancer cells in a targeted way and delivers vedotin to kill them. It is a type of antibody-drug conjugate. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as pembrolizumab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Treatment with enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of bladder cancer, but TPE is not. Combining TPE with enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab may work better than standard of care options for treating metastatic and refractory bladder and urinary tract cancers. This study also evaluates the effect of TPE with standard of care antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) in treating patients with refractory metastatic bladder cancer. ADC therapy is treatment with a monoclonal antibody linked to a chemotherapy drug. It is a form of targeted therapy because it attaches to specific molecules (receptors) on the surface of tumor cells, and delivers chemotherapy to kill them. Giving TPE with standard of care ADC therapy may be effective in treating patients with refractory metastatic bladder cancer.
A First-in-Human Study of BMS-986506 in Participants With Advanced Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC)
This is a first-in-human study of BMS-986506 in participants with advanced Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma (ccRCC). The primary objective of this study is to find out if BMS-986506 is safe and can be tolerated when taken alone or in combination by participants with ccRCC.