(UroToday.com) The treatment landscape for first-line therapy among patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) has changed dramatically over the past 2 years. In 2018, publication of the CheckMate214 data demonstrated a survival benefit for patients treated with nivolumab and ipilimumab compared with sunitinib in intermediate and poor-risk mRCC, ushering in the immunotherapy era for mRCC. Subsequent publication of the JAVELIN Renal 101 and KEYNOTE-426 studies in 2019 demonstrated superiority of avelumab and axitinib and pembrolizumab and axitinib, compared to sunitinib in this disease space. These two trials were the first to demonstrate that the combination of immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibition and targeted therapy improved overall survival compared to sunitinib, the previous standard of care. Network meta-analysis following publication of these data demonstrated the apparent superiority of this combined approach. At ESMO 2020, Dr. Choueiri presented first results from the CheckMate-9ER of the combination of nivolumab and cabozantinib, as compared to sunitinib, in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This first report, which is still unpublished, demonstrated the superiority of nivolumab plus cabozantinib to sunitinib in the first line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma with respect to both progression-free survival and overall survival and led to its approval. In a plenary abstract presentation in the Poster Highlights Session: Renal Cell Cancer – Clinical Trial Updates session at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), Dr. Cella presented patient-reported outcomes from this trial.