EAU 2017 | Current treatment landscape in renal cell carcinoma

Grant Stewart, MBChB, FRCSEd (Urol), PhD, from the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK, discusses current approaches in the treatment of localized and metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) at the European Association of Urology (EAU) conference 2017 in London, UK. Surgery remains the first-line treatment for localized RCC. He explains that despite recent results from the S-TRAC (NCT00375674) trial demonstrating a possible advantage in terms of progression to having sunitinib therapy, other trials have not demonstrated the same positive results. Further research would therefore be necessary before the benefits of adjuvant therapies can be determined. Conversely, systemic therapies are the first-line treatment for metastatic RCC, with tyrosine kinase still being the primary standard of care. Promising new second-line treatments are being developed immune-oncology drugs and T-cell checkpoint inhibitors.