ECCO 2017 | The risks of combining therapies in renal cell carcinoma and bladder cancer

Laurence Albiges, MD, PhD, from the Gustave Roussy Institute, Villejuif, France discusses the risks of combining therapies in bladder cancer and renal cell carcinoma (RCC) at the European Cancer Congress of the European Cancer Organisation (ECCO) 2017 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Immuno-oncology drugs are starting to be combined with each other, however, the immunological side effects from this are not well known, and therefore need to be used with caution. In RCC, checkpoint inhibitors tend to be combined with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and conversely with chemotherapy in bladder cancer. Recent Phase III trials have shown that there is a strong likelihood of enhanced toxicity of these drugs when combined, however, further research would need to be carried out to confirm this.