A trial looking at everolimus and dovitinib for kidney cancer that has spread (DEVELOP)

Everolimus is a type of biological therapy called an mTOR inhibitor. It stops a protein called mTOR from working properly. mTOR controls other proteins that trigger cancer cells to grow. By blocking mTOR, everolimus may help stop cancer growing.

Doctors often use everolimus to treat kidney cancer that has spread. But it doesn’t always work. Doctors want to find out if taking a drug called dovitinib at the same time will help it work better.

Dovitinib is a new drug and is a type of biological therapy called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor or TKI. TKIs block tyrosine kinase, which is a chemical messenger (an enzyme) that sends messages to tell cells to divide and grow. Blocking tyrosine kinase may stop cancer cells growing.

The aims of this trial were to find out

• The best dose of everolimus and dovitinib to use for clear cell kidney cancer that has spread
• More about the side effects
• How well this new combination of treatment works