One dose of immunotherapy leading to an exceptional and durable response in a patient with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

A 72-year-old man with metastatic clear cell renal carcinoma, who had progressed after previous treatment with Sunitinib and Axitinib, was given one dose of immunotherapy. He was initially unwell after treatment with fever, shortness of breath, chest pain and raised inflammatory markers. Following this he elected not to have any further immunotherapy. Before the treatment he had multiple pulmonary metastases and hilar and mediastinal lymph nodes on chest X-ray and suffered with a persistent cough. Chest X-ray 10 months after treatment showed normal appearances and his cough had largely resolved. The patient initially declined repeat computed tomography imaging but agreed to it 2 years after the immunotherapy, the results showed a maintained response. Some patients with renal cell carcinoma show a durable response to immunotherapy but we are not aware of other published cases where a patient has shown such a dramatic and sustained response to one dose.