Editorial: Immunotherapy in renal cell carcinoma.

This collection contains 10 reports published In Frontiers in Oncology between August 2020 and March 2022 broadly focused on the immunobiology of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the impact of immunotherapy in the setting of RCC, and the identification of biomarkers that are prognostic of RCC patient outcomes and response to immunotherapy.

Impact of COVID-19 crisis on medical care of patients with metastasized uro-oncologic disease under systemic cancer therapy: a multicenter study in German university hospitals.

Purpose: To date, over 4.2 million Germans and over 235 million people worldwide have been infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Uro-oncology (UO) patients are particularly vulnerable but in urgent need of life-saving systemic treatments.

Consensus paper: current state of first- and second-line therapy in advanced clear-cell renal cell carcinoma.

The therapy of advanced (clear-cell) renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has recently experienced tremendous changes. Several new treatments have been developed, with PD-1 immune-checkpoint inhibition being the backbone of therapy. Diverse immunotherapy combinations change current first-line standards.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on treatment patterns in metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma.

Background: The coronavirus pandemic has provoked discussions among healthcare providers how to manage cancer patients when faced with the threat of severe acute respiratory syndrome related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) containing regimens are standard of care in the majority of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mccRCC) patients. It remains unclear whether therapies should be modified in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Randomised phase II trial of trofosfamide vs. doxorubicin in elderly patients with untreated metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma.

Doxorubicin represents the standard first-line treatment for metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma. We assessed the efficacy and safety of trofosfamide in elderly patients. In this controlled phase II trial, we randomly (1:2) assigned 120 previously untreated patients with soft-tissue sarcoma, older than 60 years, with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group score of 0-2, to receive either doxorubicin for 6 cycles (arm A) or oral trofosfamide (arm B).

Comparative analysis of the phase III clinical trials of anti-PD1 monotherapy in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients (CheckMate 141 and KEYNOTE 040).

Two phase III clinical trials (CheckMate 141 and KEYNOTE 040) have independently demonstrated that overall survival (OS) in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) patients, who have failed platinum-based therapy, can be improved with anti-PD1 monotherapy. Treatment with nivolumab or pembrolizumab in R/M HNSCC patients led to an improved OS with a hazards ratio (HR) of 0.70 (95%CI 0.

Publisher Correction: Clinical activity and molecular correlates of response to atezolizumab alone or in combination with bevacizumab versus sunitinib in renal cell carcinoma.

In the version of this article originally published, there was an error in Fig. 2n. The top line of the HR comparison chart originally was Atezo + bev vs sun.

Clinical activity and molecular correlates of response to atezolizumab alone or in combination with bevacizumab versus sunitinib in renal cell carcinoma.

We describe results from IMmotion150, a randomized phase 2 study of atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1) alone or combined with bevacizumab (anti-VEGF) versus sunitinib in 305 patients with treatment-naive metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Co-primary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) in intent-to-treat and PD-L1+ populations. Intent-to-treat PFS hazard ratios for atezolizumab + bevacizumab or atezolizumab monotherapy versus sunitinib were 1.

Imatinib induces sustained progression arrest in RECIST progressive desmoid tumours: Final results of a phase II study of the German Interdisciplinary Sarcoma Group (GISG).

Background: Desmoid tumours describe a rare monoclonal, fibroblastic proliferation characterised by an often unpredictable clinical course. Surgery is one therapeutic option for progressing patients, except if mutilating and associated with considerable function loss. Different systemic treatment approaches have been investigated and promising results could be demonstrated using imatinib.

Correlation of CTNNB1 Mutation Status with Progression Arrest Rate in RECIST Progressive Desmoid-Type Fibromatosis Treated with Imatinib: Translational Research Results from a Phase 2 Study of the German Interdisciplinary Sarcoma Group (GISG-01).

Background: CTNNB1 gene mutations are the molecular key events in the majority of sporadic desmoid-type fibromatosis (DF). The specific S45F mutation has been reported to be associated with a more aggressive clinical course in DF. For the current study, the CTNNB1 mutation status was analyzed in DF samples from the prospective German Interdisciplinary Sarcoma Group (GISG) phase 2 study evaluating imatinib to induce progression arrest in DF Response Evaluation Criteria In Solid Tumors (RECIST) progressive patients.

Study protocol of REGOSARC trial: activity and safety of regorafenib in advanced soft tissue sarcoma: a multinational, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase II trial.

Background: Angiogenesis, among other signaling pathways, plays a key-role in sarcoma biology. Regorafenib (RE) has recently been shown to be effective in imatinib and sunitinib-refractory GIST in a phase III trial.

Methods/design: We are conducting an international trial (France, Austria and Germany) consisting in 4 parallel double-blind placebo-controlled randomized (1/1) phase II trials to assess the activity and safety of RE in doxorubicin-refractory STS (ClinicalTrials.

Positive effects of zoledronate on skeletal-related events in patients with renal cell cancer and bone metastases.

Introduction: Approximately 30% of patients with renal cell cancer (RCC) develop bone metastasis causing skeletal-related events (SRE): pathologic fracture, spinal cord compression, surgery to bone and radiotherapy. Zoledronic acid demonstrated significant clinical benefit in RCC patients in a retrospective analysis. Primary objective of this prospective study was the proportion of patients experiencing ≥ 1 SRE during 12 months of zoledronic acid treatment and to verify the retrospective data.

Circulating endothelial cells are an early predictor in renal cell carcinoma for tumor response to sunitinib.

Background: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have enriched the therapeutic options in patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which frequently induce morphological changes in tumors. However, only little is known about the biological activity of TKI. Circulating endothelial cells (CEC) have been associated with endothelial damage and, hence, may serve as a putative marker for the biological activity of TKI.

Phase II trial of capecitabine and oxaliplatin in patients with adeno- and undifferentiated carcinoma of unknown primary.

Background: Carcinomas of unknown primary (CUP) account for approximately 2-5% of all cancer diagnoses. Except for some subsets with favorable prognosis, for most of these patients treatment options are limited, and no standard first-line regimen has been identified. We performed a phase II study with oxaliplatin (OX) and capecitabine (CAP) as first-line treatment for patients with histo-or cytologically proven adeno- or undifferentiated CUP.