In Kidney Cancer Treatment, ‘Personalized Biomarkers Work’

Biomarker-driven therapies work in kidney cancer, and can lead the way for improving outcomes for aggressive disease subtypes, explained Dr. Yasser Ged, co-director of the Kidney Cancer Research Program and assistant professor of Oncology at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

At the 2023 Kidney Cancer Research Summit, Ged discussed findings from the phase 2 ORCHID trial, which evaluated Lynparza (Olaparib) in patients with metastatic kidney cancer that had a BRCA-associated protein 1 (BAP1) or other DNA mutations — a group of patients that typically have aggressive disease, according to Ged.

READ MORE: BAP1-Mutated RCC Responds to Treatment with Lynparza

ORCHID findings showed that among 11 patients whose data was evaluated, two experienced disease control, meaning that their disease shrunk or remained stable, while three had their tumors shrink, highlighting that Lynparza, a PARP inhibitor, may be a promising option for this patient population, Ged said.

“That emphasizes the importance of understanding the biology more, and that the role (about how) you can drive our decisions and how we can actually think about thought new targets for kidney cancer,” Ged said in an interview with CURE®’s sister publication, Oncology Live® at the conference.

According to the American Cancer Society, Lynparza and other PARP inhibitors work by blocking the PARP protein, which helps to repair damaged DNA within cancer cells. BRCA mutations also cause difficulties in repairing cells, so when cancer cells have both a BRCA-related mutation and experience PARP inhibition, they tend to die off.

Transcription

One of the important takeaways is personalized medicine and personalized biomarkers work because the study is biomarker-driven and biomarker-based. That emphasizes the importance of understanding the biology more, and that the role (about how) you can drive our decisions and how we can actually think about new targets for kidney cancer.

The other important takeaway is that BAP1 mutations are known to be very aggressive mutations and have a potential new strategy using PARP inhibitors in tumors, which have a BAP1 mutation, and that is definitely exciting. We may identify a new target or mechanism of action for BAP1 mutations, including a monotherapy or we can combine it with other agents.

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