Open Access

ARTICLE

New treatments for metastatic kidney cancer

Andrea Mancuso, Cora N. Sternberg

Department of Medical Oncology, San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals, Rome, Italy
Address correspondence to Cora N. Sternberg, MD, FACP, Department of Medical Oncology, San Camillo and Forlanini Hospitals , Circonvallazione Gianicolense, 87 Rome Italy

Canadian Journal of Urology 2005, 12(Suppl.1), 66-70.

Abstract

Renal cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 3% of adult malignancies and 90%-95% of neoplasms arising from the kidney. It is characterized by a lack of early warning signs, diverse clinical manifestations, resistance to radiation and chemotherapy, and infrequent but reproducible responses to immunotherapy with agents such as interferon alpha (IFN-α) and interleukin 2 (IL-2). International studies have shown objective response rates of < 15% in patients with advanced and metastatic disease, with 5-year disease-specific survival ranging between 0-20%. Considering these poor outcomes, renal cancers’ very vascular nature and overexpression of receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), various biologic and angio-suppressive therapies are being evaluated in clinical trials. Promising results in terms of overall response rate and median time to progression have been reported especially as second-line therapy following cytokine failure, a setting where no effective systemic therapy has been recognized (SU011248, Bay 43-9006, Bevacizumab and Erlotinib). While confirmatory studies are ongoing, other novel treatments in first line trials (CCI-779, Infliximab, PTK-787, and Thalidomide) have drawn international attention. This review, analyzing basic translational research principles, will summarize the available data on the use of these new therapeutic approaches in RCC.

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