River Island has got the green light for a rescue restructure that saves more than 4,000 jobs but will shut 33 of the clothing chain’s 230 stores as people shift to buying online.
The plan to reduce costs, which still puts more than 1,000 jobs and a further 70 sites at risk, won approval of a high court judge on Friday after a majority of creditors gave their backing earlier in the week.
There had been fears the family-owned company could collapse after it told creditors in June that if a restructure was not approved it could run short of cash by the end of August and would be “unable to pay its debts as they fall due”.
Ben Lewis, the retailer’s chief executive, said the approved plan, which involves a sharp reduction in rent payments, would enable the company to “align our store estate to our customers’ needs. He said: “We are pleased that River Island’s restructuring plan has been approved by the high court.
“We have a clear transformation strategy to ensure the long-term viability of the business, and this decision gives us a strong platform to deliver this. Recent improvements in our fashion offer and shopping experience are starting to show results, and the restructuring plan will enable us to align our store estate to our customers’ needs.”
There had been a question over whether the court would approve the deal as fewer than 75% of landlords, one class of creditors, did not back the plan in the online vote this week.
The decision protects the future of a high street fashion stalwart that has outlived rivals from Topshop to Oasis, Ted Baker and Warehouse, all of which trade solely online in the UK.
Fashion retailers are facing heavy competition from cheap, fast-growing online players including Shein and Temu, which benefit from a tax break on imported goods sent straight to shoppers.
River Island, formerly known as Chelsea Girl, began selling clothing under the name Lewis’s in the 1940s.
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In a plan first announced in June, the retailer said it needed £10m in funds by the second week of September. It warned that that figure could rise to £50m by the end of the year.
River Island said it would not be able to continue trading as a going concern and would be subject to administration or other insolvency proceedings if it could not agree a deal to slash rents and close some stores.
Featured photograph by Stephi Matsushima
World Lion Day, celebrated annually on August 10, is an opportunity to highlight the increasing threats that one of the planet’s most iconic species faces with each passing year. For Matthew Smith Becker, a National Geographic Explorer, lion conservationist and CEO of the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP), the fate of lion populations has been a lifelong focus. “The current state of African lions is not good. They’ve disappeared from most of their historical range. And in the areas that they remain in, they’re subject to a whole array of negative human impacts.”
Beyond their grand status as “kings of the jungle,” lions serve a critical ecological purpose. As apex predators, they shape ecosystems, regulate herbivore populations and maintain balance among other carnivores. Their presence determines broader ecosystem health. As Becker explains, “they’re an umbrella species: By conserving them, you conserve a whole lot of other species and a whole lot of habitat.”
To protect and eventually replenish lion populations, Becker and his team at the Zambian Carnivore Programme, with support from the National Geographic Society, have implemented a number of innovative approaches, including an anti-snaring program. (Snaring is a method of trapping game that both depletes lions’ natural prey and ensnares lions.)
“We have been dealing with bushmeat trade, specifically the impact of snaring, for many years. We developed what we call the Field-Based Protection, or the halo approach.” This method combines intensive monitoring of prides, de-snaring them with field-based vet teams, and sharing information about lions’ whereabouts with law enforcement partners to target areas of high use and high risk. Since 2008, they’ve removed over 50 snares from lions, saving hundreds of cubs in the process. “If we hadn’t desnared all the lions we’d desnared, the population would have gone from stable to declining.”
ZCP Kafue veterinarian Michelo Mungolo (left), accompanied by a DNPW scout, collars an immobilized lioness in Kafue National Park. Satellite collars provide daily locations of lions to facilitate field-based protection, including guiding anti-snare patrols and desnaring.
Photograph by Stephi Matsushima
Human activity is at the core of the lions’ population decline. As human populations grow and expand into wildlife habitats, pressures on natural resources increase, with practices like bushmeat trading causing additional strain. According to Becker, this creates a multi-pronged problem. When natural prey becomes scarce or habitats shrink, lions turn to livestock as a food source. In response, community members often feel compelled to protect their livelihoods, which can lead to human-lion conflict.
But coexistence between humans and lions is possible, and Zambia provides a promising example of what it looks like. In South Luangwa, where there are no fences separating people from the wildlife, Becker has seen firsthand how communities can live alongside big cats. “I think one of the most amazing things about working in Zambia is there’s a lot of coexistence already. We have a coexistence program, but it’s in no small part built upon the coexistence that’s already happening — and has happened for a long time in Zambia.”
These successful lion conflict mitigation programs are led by local conservationists, typically from these same communities, and trained through long-term, grassroots initiatives. Having that field-based presence, according to Becker, has ensured that his team has been ready to adapt and respond to the challenges and opportunities of lion conservation.
Another major challenge to lion conservation is funding, as wildlife protection carries a hefty price tag. Protecting just a single pride means funding anti-poaching patrols, veterinary teams, community outreach and ecological monitoring. The Society has played a long-term role in sponsoring and promoting ZCP’s conservation efforts. “The Society has enabled us, given us support, helped us develop as an organization, and empowered some of Zambia’s bright stars. I think there’s a lot of really outstanding people that are up-and-coming in Zambia and on the continent, and National Geographic is a real leader in making that happen.”
Despite the challenges, Becker remains hopeful, especially when he sees young conservationists taking the reins. “A mentor of mine said, ‘It’s not what you do, it’s who you train,’” he reflects. Through training programs supported by the Society, his team now numbers over 100 and mentors 35 to 55 trainees per year, including Women in Wildlife Conservation Training Program participants and students in veterinary school. With some of Africa’s largest and longest-running lion conservation projects, this is an ideal training ground, and ZCP has now begun leveraging this work to help train lion conservationists on emerging projects across the continent.
A lion rests on a tree branch in Kafue National Park, Zambia.
Photograph by Anna Kusler
“I think at heart, we’re optimistic,” Becker says. “There’s a lot of promising work going on with lions.”
For those who care but feel powerless, Becker has a simple message: You can make a difference.
“Nothing is going to change unless we do it. Be informed and involved. Stay optimistic. Spread the word,” he says. Whether by donating or raising awareness, your support helps keep lions from disappearing into memory.
National Geographic Explorer Matthew Smith Becker is a conservation biologist and the CEO and Programme Director of the Zambian Carnivore Programme (ZCP), a science-based conservation organization that conducts long-term conservation work on large carnivores across Zambia.
This World Lion Day, let’s help Explorers like Matthew ensure a peaceful coexistence between humans and wildlife. Your generous contribution to the National Geographic Society will directly support vital conservation efforts that help protect the wonder of our world. Donate before August 31 to make an impact.
Princess, a collared female lion of the Shumba pride found in Kafue National Park’s Busanga Plains, and her cub seek shade after eating.
Photograph by Johane Njobvu
______________________________
ABOUT THE WRITER
Melat Kanja is the summer 2025 Engagement & Marketing Strategy Intern at the Society. Being born and raised in Kenya inspired her love for big cats. She has a passion for storytelling and its ability to create positive change, and is pursuing a degree in Public Policy with a concentration in communications at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Google’s apparent quest to bring AI features across all of its apps has just extended to one of its most mundane: Google Finance. The company announced on Friday that it’s testing a “new, AI-powered Google Finance,” chatbot included.
The revamp, which will roll out in the US in the coming weeks, will let you ask finance-related questions of the web app’s built-in chatbot, which will serve up an AI-generated answer alongside relevant links. There are also new charting tools that Google says go beyond helping you visualize “simple asset performance” with options to view technical indicators or display candlestick charts.
In addition to encompassing a broader range of market data, including from more cryptocurrencies, Google Finance will display an “up-to-the-minute” live news feed that’s supposed to help you keep track of what’s affecting today’s market.
But if you’re not a fan of chatting with AI about daily market moves, Google says it will include a toggle allowing you to revert to the classic Google Finance experience.
Conversations around have long been dominated by countries like the United States and China due to their primacy as compute, talent, and financial hubs. The discourse on AI safety, broadly defined as the management of risks associated with AI, has similarly centered on these regions, despite the global implications of AI technologies. Yet Southeast Asia—home to over 700 million people, many of whom are young and digitally connected—is rapidly emerging as a powerful force in the global digital economy. As the region becomes increasingly digitized, Southeast Asia must be actively included in the global AI safety circles to ensure equitable and responsible development and deployment.
On August 28, join the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings and AI Safety Asia (AISA) for an online discussion about a new report examining the role of Southeast Asia in global AI governance. Panelists will delve into how diverse and developing regions can draw from global best practices while tailoring solutions to their own realities.
Viewers can submit questions for speakers by emailing [email protected] or via X at @BrookingsGov by using #AISafetyAsia.
Sam Altman, left, and Elon Musk.
Muhammed Selim Korkutata | Anadolu | Getty Images
Sam Altman has dismissed longtime rival Elon Musk’s warnings that OpenAI is set to dominate Microsoft, after the companies announced that OpenAI’s latest AI model will be incorporated into Microsoft products.
On Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that OpenAI’s GPT-5 service would be launching across platforms including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Azure AI Foundry — prompting a response from Musk that “OpenAI is going to eat Microsoft alive.”
Nadella sought to downplay the issue. “People have been trying for 50 years and that’s the fun of it! Each day you learn something new, and innovate, partner, and compete,” he said on X, also expressing excitement for Musk’s own Grok 4 chatbot, which is available on Azure on a limited preview.
OpenAI CEO Altman shared his own repartee on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Friday, saying, when asked of Musk’s input, “You know, I don’t think about him that much.”
He went on to question the meaning of Musk’s statements, also noting of the tech billionaire, “I thought he was just, like, tweeting all day [on X] about how much OpenAI sucks, and our model is bad, and, you know, [we’re] not gonna be a good company and all that.”
CNBC has reached out to Musk-owned X for comment.
Altman and Musk have frequently exchanged barbs as part of a long-storied feud that dates back to their disagreement over the ultimate mission of OpenAI, which they co-founded in 2015 as a nonprofit AI research lab.
OpenAI has since been seeking to convert into a for-profit entity and capitalize on meteoric demand for its viral ChatGPT product, with Microsoft stepping in as a top backer. Musk previously filed — and has since dropped — a lawsuit against the company, citing breach of contract.
Earlier this year, the Tesla boss also led a consortium that offered to acquire the nonprofit that controls OpenAI for $97.4 billion. Altman declined the proposal with a curt “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want” on social media. He separately told CNBC at the time that he thought the takeover offer was an effort to “slow down a competitor.”
After capping an incredible 12 months by signing a new contract with us, Ethan Nwaneri can’t wait to see what 2025/26 and beyond will bring.
Having spent a decade at the club already, the 18-year-old will continue his association with us after putting pen to paper on a fresh deal, allowing him to develop his skills at the place where he admits he feels comfortable and secure.
With 37 appearances and nine goals from a breakout campaign last time around under his belt, Ethan is now eyeing up another season in our first-team now his future is secure.
After signing his contract, he revealed: “It means everything to me, I’m so happy to have got it done. This is where I feel at home, and where I’m going to develop the best. I’m ready.
“I’m very excited. I see this as my first real season, and part of a proper squad in the changing room. I’m so excited for what I can bring to the team and how I can help the team.
“I’m a very versatile player, so I think I’m going to play anywhere across the front five, and I’m ready to do what the manager needs.”
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Having become the Premier League’s youngest-ever player aged 15 years and 181 days back in September 2022, Ethan had already made a name for himself early in his career but it was last season where he really broke into our plans.
From bagging his first two goals for the club against Bolton Wanderers, to netting stunners against Girona and Manchester City, the forward ended a remarkable campaign as our joint-fifth highest scorer. That’s something he’s particularly proud of and hopes to improve as the seasons go on and he learns more about what life in the top-flight.
“I’ve had to adapt to the demands of the Premier League, so I think I’ve changed physically, but also mentally as well in terms of dealing with setbacks and injuries,” he said. “I think I’ve definitely become stronger.
“I think I’ve actually become more direct over the past few years and I’ve added more goals, so I’m excited for what will come next.”
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With Ethan and his friend Myles Lewis-Skelly now firmly established in Mikel Arteta’s plans, a new burst of energy can be felt around Hale End as our next batch of youngsters hope to emulate the pair’s feats.
Eight were included on our pre-season tour this summer and they would have been wise to pick Ethan’s brain for his advice and experiences last season. His tip is to take it step by step, and keep pushing as hard as possible to be ready whenever the door opens.
“Keep patient and have goals in your head,” he suggested. “When you’re at Hale End, the next target is to get to the Sobha Realty Training Centre. And when you’re there, it’s to get in the under-21s. Then the first thing was just to keep patient, keep working hard every day at your craft, and have the long-term vision in the back of your head, but just be ready when it comes.
“It’s a good pressure that [the academy players] are going to be watching you, so you need to show them the right things. It means a lot that the young generation is looking up to me now because when I was their age, I was looking up to the Hale End graduates and the Arsenal players in general.
“Reiss [Nelson], Bukayo [Saka], Emile [Smith Rowe] – so many players. Ainsley Maitland-Niles – all these players I was looking up to when I was young. You don’t compare, but you’ve shared something, like a moment. They’ve been where you’ve been, and you’re trying to get to where they are.”
Hear more from Ethan as he discusses the highs and lows of last season, his aims for 25/26 and how his younger brother Emerson is progressing in our academy by pressing play on the video above.
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Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
LONDON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — Aston Villa has signed striker Evann Guessand from French side Nice for an initial fee of 26 million pounds (35 million U.S. dollars).
The 24-year-old, who was born on the island of Corsica but represents the Cote d’Ivoire at international level, will provide back-up to Ollie Watkins, who was the only recognized forward in the Villa squad after the end of the loan deals for Marcus Rashford and Marco Asensio last season.
Guessand is the club’s second arrival of a difficult summer in which the club’s transfer activity has been limited by the need to comply with UEFA’s financial fair play rules.
The club’s other signing is goalkeeper Marco Bizot from Brest.
Speaking to Aston Villa’s TV channel, Guessand said the change to work with head coach Unai Emery was one thing that attracted him to the club.
“He really is the person who convinces me to come here, and of course, we know the career of this coach.”
“A long time ago, I saw him in the French league [as Paris Saint-Germain coach], and he’s known for the way he used to improve the players he used to work with, so I was thinking about this.”
“I’m a young player and I want to improve. I have many qualities that can improve, so when I spoke with the coach, I know this is the right coach for me to become better and better,” said the forward, who scored 12 goals in 32 league appearances last season in France. ■
Image Credit: © barinovalena – stock.adobe.com
Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was shown to have an immune-cold environment that impedes patient response to immunotherapy, although ferroptosis induction may be a promising target for managing tumor resistance in this subtype, according to findings from a study of the tumor-intrinsic and microenvironmental mechanisms of impaired antitumor immunity in patients with chromophobe RCC, which were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Investigators found that α-intercalated cells (ICA) are the cellular origin of renal oncolytic neoplasms. Additionally, HLA class I molecule downregulation occurs in chromophobe RCC, coupled with the enrichment of pathways that may be targetable, such as ferroptosis and rapamycin.
Furthermore, following the tumor microenvironment (TME) of chromophobe RCC was shown to have decreased immune infiltration compared with that of clear cell RCC (ccRCC; Wilcoxon P = .007), including a marked depletion of the proportion of tumor-infiltrating CD8-positive T cells (9.6% vs 44.6% in ccRCC; Fisher’s exact P < .001). The proportion of CD4-positive T cells was also lower in chromophobe RCC (3.2%) vs ccRCC (12.3%; Fisher’s exact P < .001). Conversely, chromophobe RCC displayed a higher proportion of B-lineage (20.6% vs 1.4%; Fisher’s exact P < .001) and myeloid (34.7% vs 17.7%; Fisher’s exact P < .001) cells compared with ccRCC. These findings demonstrate the distinct tumor-infiltrating immune repertoire of chromophobe RCC.
Notably, an immunohistochemistry (IHC) evaluation of 4 chromophobe RCC samples and 3 ccRCC samples showed that chromophobe RCC–infiltrating CD8-positive T cells had lower immune checkpoint expression, as well as decreased tumor specificity and clonal expansion compared with ccRCC cells, indicating that the few T cells that do exist in these disease subtypes are nonspecific bystanders, rather than active mediators of antitumor immunity. Additionally, the density ratio of PD-1 expression to CD8 expression trended lower in chromophobe RCC vs ccRCC (Wilcoxon P = .11), indicating that the CD8-positive T cells in chromophobe RCC have a distinct immune phenotype, including lower expression of PD-1, a clinically actionable immune checkpoint.
Moreover, a real-world clinical analysis showed that patients with metastatic chromophobe RCC who received immune-based therapies had poor survival outcomes compared with patients with ccRCC.
“Our study confirms the cellular origin of chromophobe RCC and identified several differentially expressed pathways, supporting the investigation of new targets for chromophobe RCC therapy, including ferroptosis, mTORC1 signaling, and IL-15 signaling,” lead study author Chris Labaki, MD, and coauthors wrote. “Our work also provides the first in-depth look at the immune characteristics of chromophobe RCC and renal oncolytic tumors, identifying key areas of immune dysfunction that provide a mechanistic basis for the poor responses to ICI therapies observed in chromophobe RCC.”
Labaki is an internal medicine resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a research associate at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard in Boston, Massachusetts.
Chromophobe RCC is the second most common type of non-ccRCC and is associated with poor clinical outcomes compared with other RCC histologies. Although immune checkpoint inhibition is a standard of care (SOC) for patients with metastatic ccRCC, these regimens have not been as effective in patients with advanced chromophobe RCC, although this has only been studied in small patient populations. Overall, however, the optimal treatment strategy for patients with chromophobe RCC is an unmet need for this population, partly because the underlying biology of the disease is poorly understood.
Although prior studies have attempted to define the TME and phenotypic states of immune cell populations in chromophobe RCC and renal oncolytic tumors, these are still not well characterized. In addition, the exact cellular origin of these diseases has not been comprehensively identified.
Due to these unanswered questions, investigators conducted a study to evaluate the tumor-intrinsic and immune microenvironment characteristics of chromophobe RCC and renal oncolytic neoplasms, as well as determine the clinical outcomes of patients with advanced chromophobe RCC treated with systemic antineoplastic therapies.
Investigators performed single-cell transcriptomic and T-cell receptor profiling on fresh tumor and adjacent healthy tissue specimens from 5 patients with chromophobe RCC and renal oncolytic neoplasms. Machine learning was used to evaluate the cellular origin of the renal oncolytic neoplasms and assess associated oncogenic pathways. Investigators also used IHC to compare immune infiltration between ccRCC and renal oncolytic neoplasms.
Additionally, the study compared immune checkpoint expression, tumor specificity, and clonal expansion between chromophobe RCC and ccRCC. Furthermore, the investigators used the IMDC dataset to compare clinical outcomes with first-line systemic therapies in patients with metastatic chromophobe RCC vs those with ccRCC.
Four of the 5 tumor samples included in this analysis originated from the primary kidney tumor. The other sample originated from a positive retroperitoneal lymph node for chromophobe RCC. At the time of sample collection, no patients had been treated with systemic antineoplastic therapies.
Inferred copy number variations (CNV) from scRNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) data showed full-chromosome deletions in the 3 chromophobe RCC samples, which is consistent with the known genomic profile of this disease. Conversely, the low-grade oncolytic tumors (LOT) and renal oncocytoma (RO) cells did not contain large CNV events, which was also consistent with previously reported findings.
The machine-learning analysis of scRNA-seq data from matched normal samples in the study cohort (n = 784) showed that the chromophobe RCC, RO, and LOT tumor cells shared the highest level of predicted similarity with ICA cells. External scRNA-seq data of chromophobe RCC cells further validated these findings.
Investigators then conducted a differential gene expression analysis between chromphobe RCC and its cell of origin (i.e., ICA cells) using scRNA-seq data to further understand the transcriptional changes related to chromphobe RCC tumorigenesis. The most upregulated genes in chromophobe RCC cells vs ICA cells were KLK1, NUPR1, FTL, and FTH1. Notably, NUPR1, FTL, and FTH1 have all been shown to inhibit ferroptosis, a key molecular axis in chromophobe RCC pathogenesis that may have therapeutic vulnerabilities.
The most downregulated genes in chromophobe RCC cells vs ICA cells were ADGRF5, HSPA1A, HSPA1B, HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C, HSPA8, HSPA5, and HSPA6. Notably, downregulation of HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-C is associated with immunotherapy resistance. HSPA5, HSPA6, HSPA8, HSPA1A, and HSPA1B are known to suppress ferroptosis.
To determine whether the T cells present in chromophobe RCC had antitumor specificity to inform targeted therapy approaches, the investigators compared single-cell T-cell receptor sequencing profiling data from chromophobe RCC vs ccRCC samples. The proportion of unexpanded T-cell clones, which are usually observed when T cells do not encounter a cognate antigen, was significantly higher in chromophobe RCC vs ccRCC (P = .05). Furthermore, chromophobe RCC trended toward having a lower proportion of expanded clonotypes compared with ccRCC. These findings are evident of low tumor specificity in chromophobe RCC.
To further investigate the adaptive immune capabilities in chromophobe RCC, the investigators conducted an analysis of the isolated T-cell compartment in 12,688 chromophobe RCC and oncolytic tumor cells. This analysis showed that T cells that were isolated from chromophobe RCC and other renal oncolytic neoplasms had a low tumor-specific signature expression but a high viral-specific signature expression.
A signature expression assessment of CD8-positive T cells alone showed that chromophobe CD8-positive T cells had significantly decreased tumor-specific signature expression (Wilcoxon P < .001) and increased viral-specific signature expression (Wilcoxon P < .001) compared with ccRCC CD8-positive T cells. Similar expression patterns were seen regarding CD4-positive T-cell specificity across these 2 disease subtypes. These results support the finding that the T-cell infiltrate in chromophobe RCC cells has bystander properties.
Investigators then performed a clinical analysis using real-world data from the International metastatic RCC Database Consortium from 229 patients with chromophobe RCC; among these patients, 31 had received SOC immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)–based therapy, including dual ICI regimens (n = 12) or ICI/VEGF-targeted regimens (n = 19) in the frontline setting. This population was compared against a real-world population of 8931 patients with ccRCC, 856 of whom had received ICI-based therapies (dual ICI, n = 503; ICI/VEGF-targeted therapies, n = 353) in the first-line setting.
At a median follow-up of 58.6 months, patients with metastatic chromophobe RCC who had received ICI-based treatment achieved a median overall survival (OS) of 24.7 months (95% CI, 16.0-not reached [NR]) vs 50.5 months (95% CI, 42.5-67.4) in those with metastatic ccRCC (adjusted HR, 2.80; 95% CI, 1.51-5.18). The median time to treatment failure (TTF) was also worse in the chromophobe population, at 4.5 months (95% CI, 2.4-16.0) vs 11.0 months (95% CI, 9.8-13.6) in the ccRCC population (adjusted HR, 2.23; 95% CI, 1.43-3.48). The overall response rates (ORRs) in these respective populations were 12.0% vs 47.1% (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 95% CI, 2.95-64.84). No patients with metastatic chromophobe RCC who received first-line ICI therapy achieved a complete response compared with 4.9% of patients in the metastatic ccRCC population.
Notably, the investigators observed no major differences in survival outcomes between the 2 subgroups among patients who received frontline VEGF-targeted therapy. The median OS was 23.1 months (95% CI, 19.1-35.6) in the chromophobe population vs 26.4 months (95% CI, 25.5-27.7) in the clear cell population (adjusted HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 0.98-1.59). Moreover, the median TTF was 7.3 months (95% CI, 5.1-8.7) in the chromophobe subgroup vs 8.3 months (95% CI, 8.0-8.4) in the clear cell subgroup (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.01-1.56).
Importantly, patients with metastatic chromophobe RCC who were treated with the first-line mTOR inhibitors everolimus (Afinitor) or temsirolimus (Torisel) achieved a higher median OS vs those with metastatic ccRCC, at 41.3 months (95% CI, 14.4-NR) vs 13.4 months (95% CI, 10.9-15.3), respectively (adjusted HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.48-1.25). Similarly, a median TTF benefit was observed in the chromophobe population at 7.84 months (95% CI, 5.29-16.6) vs 3.45 months (95% CI, 2.99-3.98) in the clear cell population (adjusted HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.33-0.82).
In general, OS and TTF outcomes were similar among patients with chromophobe RCC regardless of whether they received first-line ICI-based therapy, VEGF-targeted therapy, or an mTOR inhibitor.
“By identifying these key axes of immune dysfunction, these data provide a foundation for the rational design of future immunotherapy strategies for chromophobe RCC, including increasing tumor cell antigen presentation and expanding the repertoire of tumor-specific CD8-positive T cells that infiltrate the TME,” the authors concluded.
Labaki C, Saad E, Madsen KN, et al. Tumor-intrinsic and microenvironmental determinants of impaired antitumor activity in chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(23):2639-2654. doi:10.1200/JCO-25-00234