Nivolumab has antitumour activity in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), according to a phase II trial. Motzer and co-workers randomly assigned 168 patients with clear cell mRCC to one of three doses of nivolomab (0.3 mg/kg, 2 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg) given intravenously once every 3 weeks. Median progression-free survival ranged from 2.7 months to 4.2 months and no dose–response relationship was found. The investigators reported the safety profile to be manageable, with most treatment-related adverse events being of low severity.