TPS577 Background: Pembrolizumab (pembro) for one year following resection of localized high risk clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) in a phase 3 trial resulted in improvement in relapse-free survival and overall survival (Choueiri, NEJM 2024). However, 20% of patients still experienced a relapse within 2 years with no biomarker yet identified to predict who will respond to or needs adjuvant therapy. Addition of a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) to immunotherapy (IO) is a standard of care in metastatic ccRCC, but to date no studies have addressed the addition of a TKI to IO in the adjuvant setting. Subsequently, phase 3 STRIKE! was developed to explore the benefit of 6 months of tivozanib (tivo) added to pembro vs pembro alone in the adjuvant setting for resected high risk ccRCC. Methods: Eligible patients have an ECOG performance status ≤2 and a histologically confirmed diagnosis of RCC with clear cell component with or without sarcomatoid features after complete resection of the primary tumor, with pathology revealing pT2 grade 4 disease or any grade ≥ T3 or TxN1. Patients are also eligible if they developed metastasis within a year after resection and then underwent resection, definitive radiation or ablation of solid, isolated, soft tissue metastases (excluding brain and bone lesions) with no evidence of active disease (M1NED). Patients will be randomized 1:1 to intravenous pembro for 48 weeks with or without the addition of tivo 1.34 mg by mouth daily D1-21 q28D for 6 months stratified by stage (T2T3 vs T4/N1 vs M1NED) . With no limit on dose holds or interruptions of tivo, dose reductions of tivo to 0.89 mg D1-21 q28D or tivo 0.89 mg every other day are allowed. No dose reductions of pembro are permitted. Following baseline imaging to confirm no disease, imaging is performed every 12 weeks for first year, every 16 weeks for second year, every 24 weeks for third year and then annually until 5 years after registration or progression. The primary endpoint will be disease-free survival (DFS) as assessed by investigator, with secondary endpoints being overall survival, safety and tolerability. The study will enroll 1040 patients to detect a minimum detectable hazard ratio of 0.67 (24-month DFS 84% in experimental arm) with 90% power. Quality of life analysis will compare global quality of life and fatigue between the two arms. Imaging and specimens will be banked for future research. The study opened to accrual in April 2025 and at this time 106 patients have enrolled. Clinical trial information: NCT06661720 .
McGregor et al. (Sun,) studied this question.