Systemic therapy for patients with advanced, unresectable or metastatic renal cell carcinoma: moving to guidelines

Until recently, patients with advanced, unresectable or metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) had very few therapeutic options. Cytokine therapy, consisting mainly of interferon-alpha and interleukin-2, was considered the mainstay of therapy. A better understanding of the biology of RCC has led to the development of novel therapeutic agents that target angiogenesis. Inactivation of the von Hippel-Lindau tumour-suppressor gene VHL, which is present …