Abstract
The management of metastatic renal cell cancer remains a therapeutic challenge with a current 5-year survival of <10%. The resistance of renal cell cancer to chemotherapy is well established, and for over 2 decades, the mainstay of treatment for advanced disease had been immunotherapy with interferon-α (IFNα) and interleukin-2 (IL-2). These agents produced response rates of only 10–20%, and were associated with substantial toxicity. Treatment options have changed dramatically over the past few years, as significant advances in understanding renal cancer biology has led to the development of “targeted therapy” approaches that block tumor cell or blood vessel growth. These approaches have markedly improved metastatic kidney cancer treatment, and appear to have converted this once inevitably fatal cancer into a chronic disease. Survival appears to have increased at least three-fold in this interval, as a result of these new treatments. Additional promising agents are currently in the clinical testing stage.
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© 2010 Springer-Verlag London
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Wong, B.Y., Samlowski, W.E. (2010). Renal Cell Cancer. In: Shergill, I., Arya, M., Grange, P., Mundy, A. (eds) Medical Therapy in Urology. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-704-2_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84882-704-2_2
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