Systemic adjuvant therapy for renal cell carcinoma: Any hope for future clinical trials?

The role of adjuvant therapy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after surgical resection has been evaluated in numerous randomized and nonrandomized studies using systemic therapies with distinct mechanisms of action. However, adjuvant therapy has not demonstrated definitive benefit to date and guidelines currently do not support its use. Continued advancement in the understanding of the molecular pathogenesis in RCC is critical, which would lead to identification of new therapeutic targets, as well as novel prognostic and predictive biomarkers, in hopes of improving outcomes in this lethal disease. Herein we summarize the results of randomized studies of the adjuvant treatments of RCC, in hopes to direct future effort in the development of treatment of this disease.