New therapeutic approaches in the management of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for approximately 2% of all cancers worldwide. For several decades cytokine therapy using either interleukin-2 (IL-2) or interferon -alpha (IFN-alpha) was the only effective treatment available for patients with metastatic RCC. Metastatic RCC represents a chemotherapy- and radiotherapy-resistant tumor with poor prognosis and 5-year survival rate <10%. Over the past few years considerable advances in the understanding of biology and underlying molecular pathways in RCC have resulted in the development of targeted therapies for this disease.