Patients will receive infusions of pembrolizumab. After an MRI or CT scan to determine how the tumor is responding to the drug, the patient will either continue receiving infusions of pembrolizumab alone, or receive axitinib in addition to pembrolizumab. The patient will also need to provide a biopsy of your tumor around the time the imaging scan is taken and need to come to the clinic around every three weeks during treatment. At the clinic visits, we will also do lab tests and imaging.
The purpose of this research is to test the response of study participants' tumor to pembrolizumab alone, and in combination with axitinib, and to see what effects (good and bad) these drugs have on patients with advanced kidney cancer.