Benefit was consistent in patients with bone metastases (hazard ratio, 0.72) and liver metastases (hazard ratio, 0.81).
Nivolumab was likewise superior to everolimus in the roughly 60% of patients who had previously received sunitinib (hazard ratio, 0.81) and in the roughly 30% who had previously received pazopanib (hazard ratio, 0.60).
And benefit was essentially the same whether patients had been on first-line therapy for less than 6 months, a poor prognostic marker (hazard ratio, 0.76), or for longer than that (hazard ratio, 0.78).
There was also an overall survival advantage in favor of nivolumab when patients were stratified by International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) risk score, number of sites of metastases, and number of prior anti-angiogenic therapies.
The previously published results showed an advantage in favor of nivolumab regardless of programmed death–ligand 1 (PD-L1) expression, Dr. Motzer noted.
The benefit in terms of overall response rate was also consistently in favor of nivolumab over everolimus across these diverse patient subgroups.
Dr. Motzer disclosed that he has a consulting or advisory role with Eisai, Novartis, and Pfizer; that he receives travel expenses from Bristol-Myers Squibb; and that his institution receives research funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eisai, Genentech/Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, and Pfizer. The trial was sponsored in part by Bristol-Myers Squibb in collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.