Medical Treatment of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Therapy for disseminated renal cell carcinoma is a major problem, as it's almost completely resistant to standard therapeutic approaches such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The search for innovative strategies has led to new concepts based on the assumption that cellular or soluble mediators of the immune system can be rendered cytotoxic or cytostatic for renal cell cancer. With partial response rates of ca. 100% and very promising global response rates, biotherapies are in progress. A number of clinical trials have been perfomed employing systemic administration of interferon (rIFN-) alone or in combination with cytostatic agents, human recombinant interleukin-2 (rlL-2), and, more recently, immunomodulatory agents such as lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells: these substances have been demonstrated to be a treatment of choice for advanced renal cell carcinoma, even if they seem unable to modify the natural history of the disease.