20-12-2019
A three-year grant from the Danish Cancer Society has recently been assigned to a project investigating the effects and side effects of treatment with checkpoint immunotherapy for patients with kidney cancer. Data consists of laboratory data and patient reported outcome data and the results are expected to contribute to the development of the treatment methods, potentially for other cancer diseases.
Danish Cancer Society has allocated DKK 10 million from 'Knæk Cancer 2018' for funding the collection of experiences with new medicine from clinical practice. The ambition is to systematically collect both patient and doctor experiences with new cancer medicine including the exploration of new methods for evaluating effects and side-effects during treatment. The DCCC Steering Committee has been appointed as the assessment committee.
Checkpoint immunotherapy with ipilimumab in combination with nivolumab was verified by the Danish Medicines Council as the standard treatment for patients with metastatic kidney cancer in March, 2019. The basis of the verification was a small sample of patients.
The project period is three years and the study will examine treatment results of checkpoint immunotherapy with the possibility of all Danish patients with metastatic kidney cancer to participate. The project will use new methods to identify which patients that will benefit from the treatment among a larger patient population. Thus the aim is to examine the treatment and side effects within the normal patient population by collecting data on resistance and response patterns as well as patient reported outcome (PRO) data on life quality.
Extensive data collection as part of developing new treatment methods
The project group is anchored in the Department of Oncology at Aarhus University Hospital and is led by Professor and Consultant Frede Donskov. The collection of data will be based on molecular analyses of faeces, blood and tissue samples before and after treatment. The extensive laboratory data will be compared with treatment results and contribute to an overall evaluation of effects and side effects. The final results are expected to contribute to the development of treatment methods with checkpoint immunotherapy including improved patient selection and the potential development of the treatment method for other types of cancer.
The next application deadline for the New medicine fund is January 14, 2020 at 15:00. Read more on Danish Cancer Society's website.
Project facts:
New checkpoint immunotherapy for patients with metastatic kidney cancer – collection of experiences from clinical practice
Applicant
Danish Renal Cancer Group (DaRenCa)
Frede Donskov
Professor, dr.med.
Consultant, Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital
The project is supported with DKK 1.5 million for three years.