The Emerging Role of Targeted Therapy in the Treatment of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

Introduction

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for approximately 36,000 cases yearly in the United States. Approximately 60% of patients with RCC are cured with initial surgical resection. However, treatments have been largely ineffective in the remaining 40% of patients who either have metastatic disease at diagnosis, or who develop recurrence following initial surgical resection.

Standard cytotoxic agents are largely ineffective, producing response rates of less than 10%.[1,2] High dose interleukin (IL)-2 has been highly active in a small subset of patients, producing major clinical benefit with long-term remissions in 5% to 10% of patients.[3,4] However, the large majority of patients have no benefit with this therapy, and the high level of toxicity precludes treatment in many older patients. Therefore, more effective treatments are urgently needed for