Adjuvant therapy for renal-cell carcinoma: settled for now

Renal-cell carcinoma is one of the most lethal urological malignancies, causing an estimated 143 000 deaths per year worldwide. Complete surgical resection of the primary tumour is the only available curative option. However, 20-40% of patients with initially localised disease develop tumour recurrence. 2 Until 2007, the mainstay systemic therapy for patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma was interferon or interleukin-2. 3 The introduction of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-targeting drugs, such as the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) sunitinib and sorafenib, has resulted in substantially improved progression-free and overall survival for patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma. 4,5