Rini BI, et al. - Because in a phase 1b trial involving patients with previously untreated advanced renal-cell carcinoma, the combination of pembrolizumab and axitinib showed antitumor activity, researchers ascertained if pembrolizumab plus axitinib would result in better outcomes than sunitinib in such patients. For this investigation, 861 patients with previously untreated advanced clear-cell renal-cell carcinoma were randomly assigned to receive pembrolizumab (200 mg) intravenously once every 3 weeks plus axitinib (5 mg) orally twice daily (432 patients) or sunitinib (50 mg) orally once daily for the first 4 weeks of each 6-week cycle (429 patients). According to this open-label, phase 3 trial, treatment with pembrolizumab plus axitinib led to significantly longer overall survival and progression-free survival as well as a higher objective response rate than treatment with sunitinib among patients with previously untreated advanced renal cell carcinoma.