Survival rate comparisons of angioembolization and neoadjuvant targeted therapy on unresectable renal cell carcinoma patients: A systematic review

Renal cell cancer (RCC) is the most typical form of kidney cancer in adults, which accounts for 80% to 85% of all primary renal neoplasms. RCC develops inside the renal cortex. This study aimed to systematically review the survival rate of patients treated with targeted therapy and/or RC. Surgery is the standard therapy for RCC, even though after surgery, 20%-40% of patients with localized RCC would experience distant metastases. Metastases or large RCC are not amenable to surgery. Unresectable RCC can be treated palliatively with angioembolization or neoadjuvant therapy. This study aims to review the survival rate comparisons of angioembolization and neoadjuvant targeted therapy on unresectable renal cell carcinoma. A thorough search across databases such as PubMed, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest was conducted for articles published from 2018 to 2023. To uphold research integrity, duplicates, reviews, and incomplete articles were excluded, ensuring only pertinent and original research findings for subsequent analysis. Database search yielded 247 articles, which were systematically eliminated, leaving 6 relevant articles. Analyzed articles showed the overall survival of patients treated with angioembolization and neoadjuvant agents. Unresectable RCC can be treated palliatively with angioembolization. Angioembolization may improve clinical effectiveness and lessen side effects by boosting local concentrations of drugs. Drug-eluting bead transarterial chemoembolization is a novel embolization option that can embolize the arteries that feed the tumor and cutoff the blood supply to the tumor. Sunitinib, the most studied medicinal agent, was found to have higher effectiveness when combined with angioembolization.