Dr. Emre Yekedüz is a medical oncologist and research fellow in medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Dr Emre Yekedüz 

Dr. Emre Yekedüz discusses how ASCO 2025 highlights precision medicine, biomarkers and the gut microbiome as keys to advancing kidney cancer care.

What is on the Horizon for Kidney Cancer?

At the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, Dr. Emre Yekedüz, a medical oncologist and research fellow at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, emphasized that the future of kidney cancer care is increasingly centered on personalization.

He pointed to ongoing efforts to match patients with treatments most likely to benefit them, particularly through the use of biomarkers and exploratory analyses across early-stage and metastatic kidney cancer trials.

He also noted growing interest in the gut microbiome’s role in kidney cancer outcomes. Although many findings still need validation, Yekedüz believes precision medicine and post-immunotherapy combination strategies are bringing new hope to patients.

Kidney cancer can develop in different parts of the kidney and includes several types. The most common in adults is renal cell carcinoma, which begins in the lining of small tubes that filter blood and help produce urine. Transitional cell cancer forms in the renal pelvis, the area in the center of the kidney where urine collects. Wilms tumor, a rare type, usually occurs in children, according to the National Cancer Institute.

What are the key themes or takeaways from the 2025 ASCO Meeting that you believe patients with kidney cancer should be most aware of?

There is a huge effort to select patients who will get more benefit from treatment. At ASCO25, there's a session on biomarkers in kidney cancer, and we’ll learn more about selecting the right patient for the right treatment. In this context, we will see results from new adjuvant, neoadjuvant, and metastatic kidney cancer trials, including exploratory analyses. We’ll also discuss the effect of the gut microbiome on kidney cancer. However, we still need more data and validation of these findings in the future.

I can say that the future is bright in kidney cancer. The new ASCO meeting will bring more hope and more options to our patients. We’ll be waiting for the next steps of early, promising data that will be presented at ASCO25. New combinations, especially after immunotherapy failure, are on the way, and precision medicine is getting stronger through exploratory analyses for selecting the right patient for the right treatment. Today, we have more hope than yesterday.

Transcript has been edited for clarity and conciseness

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A variant in the IL-7 gene may predict which patients with kidney cancer are more likely to experience side effects from immunotherapy.

Gene Variant May Predict Side Effects From Kidney Cancer Immunotherapy

A gene linked to immune system function may help predict which patients with kidney cancer are more likely to experience side effects from immunotherapy, according to research highlighted by Dr. Emre Yekedüz.

The findings, which will be presented by Dr. Eddy Saad at the 2025 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, highlight a specific variation in the interleukin-7 (IL-7) gene. This single nucleotide polymorphism was associated with a higher risk of immune-related adverse events, or side effects, in patients receiving treatment.

Side effects of grade 2 (moderate) or higher occurred in 33.3% of patients treated with Opdivo (nivolumab) and 40.4% of those treated with Afinitor (everolimus). In the Opdivo arm, the most common side effects were skin-related (21%), liver-related (16.8%) and endocrine (15.8%). In the Afinitor arm, respiratory (30.1%), skin-related (22.3%) and gastrointestinal (19.4%) side effects were most common.

The rate of grade 2 or higher side effects was significantly higher in variant-positive patients compared with variant-negative patients treated with Opdivo, this pattern was not observed in patients receiving Afinitor. Recurrent side effects followed a similar pattern, with higher rates in variant-positive patients receiving Opdivo and a possible trend toward lower rates in those receiving Afinitor.

This finding could lead to more personalized strategies for reducing toxicity in patients with kidney cancer, as per Yekedüz.

Yekedüz is a medical oncologist and research fellow in medicine at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Are there any noteworthy studies being presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting that could help patients better understand or manage potential side effects from immunotherapy?

I’d like to highlight a poster [being presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting] that will be presented during the poster session. It evaluates the role of the interleukin-7 (IL-7) gene, which is involved in immune pathways for patients receiving immunotherapy. The study, to be presented by Dr. Eddy Saad from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, found that a single nucleotide polymorphism in IL-7 is associated with an increased risk of immune-related side effects in these patients.

Moving forward, we may be able to use this information to identify patients at higher risk for these side effects and reduce toxicity for those with renal cell carcinoma.

Dr Emre Yekedüz

What is on the Horizon for Kidney Cancer?

Gene Variant May Predict Side Effects From Kidney Cancer Immunotherapy

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