Novel Therapeutic Options in Metastatic Renal Cancer - Review and Post ASCO 2007 Update

Cytokine-based therapeutic approaches using interferon (IFN) and interleukin 2 (IL-2) were conventionally applied for the treatment of progressive RCC. Caused by the limited effectiveness of cytokine-based approaches in advanced renal cell carcinoma, new substances were needed. Among these, the “targeted therapies”, particularly the group of the tyrosine kinase inhibitors, are of main interest. At present, multikinase inhibitors and antiangiogenic agents (VEGFR, PDGFR-beta, and mTOR) are used in first- and second-line therapies of metastatic RCC in various clinical studies. This review presents and discusses the effectiveness of the most frequently used substances in mono- or combination regimes based on current data of the ASCO 2007.