Pathological eradication of recurrent metastatic renal cell carcinoma with sarcomatoid component by nivolumab plus ipilimumab combination therapy

Although immuno-oncology combination therapy with nivolumab plus ipilimumab has recently shown a notable antitumor effect for first-line metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the eradication of the disease is extremely rare. Moreover, conventional treatments for renal cell carcinoma show little efficacy in the case of a poor prognostic pathological feature of sarcomatoid dedifferentiation. We report a case of pathological eradication of recurrent metastatic renal cell carcinoma with sarcomatoid component after laparoscopic radical nephrectomy by nivolumab plus ipilimumab combination therapy. A 57-year-old male patient received four cycles of nivolumab plus ipilimumab and thirty cycles of nivolumab for local recurrence and liver metastasis after laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for T3a renal cell carcinoma with sarcomatoid component. He underwent partial hepatectomy for the remaining small hepatic lesion after immuno-oncology therapy. Pathology of the surgical specimen showed no viable cancer cells. The patient was alive with no evidence of disease a year after partial hepatectomy. Our case encourages clinicians to achieve a second cure for patients with recurrent metastatic renal cell carcinoma after radical nephrectomy even though the resected kidney pathology showed sarcomatoid component.