Cancer

Systemic therapy

Intensive care medicine

Kidney

Targeted therapy

Disease

Bioinformatics

Biology

Internal medicine

Renal cell carcinoma

Oncology

Medicine

Nephrectomy

Kidney cancer

Breast cancer

Nature Reviews Nephrology

This Review provides an overview of the molecular determinants of renal cell carcinoma, how understanding the underlying mechanisms of disease has fuelled the development of targeted therapies, and tools to assess the value of these agents. The management of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has changed dramatically over the past few years. Nephrectomy remains an important intervention for localized RCC but systemic therapy is the mainstay of treatment for patients who relapse after surgery or who have metastatic RCC. Before 2005, medical therapies for RCC were limited to cytokine therapies, which are very toxic and benefit only a small percentage of patients. In 2017, therapeutic agents now include kinase and immune checkpoint inhibitors. Contemporary research with these agents is now focusing on combinatorial and perioperative therapy. The field is now faced with the evolving challenge of how to select the best therapy for each patient during their natural history of disease, which has cre...

Targeted therapies for renal cell carcinoma