Current Immunotherapeutic Strategies in Renal Cell Carcinoma

Advanced renal cell carcinoma remains resistant to drug-, hormone-, and cytokine-based therapies. Promising new immunotherapeutic approaches include monoclonal antibodies, kinase inhibitors, mammalian target of rapamycin inhibition, dendritic cell, and tumor antigen vaccines. Most of these approaches have yet to produce clinical responses significantly superior to those of previous standard therapies, although most are well tolerated and elicit relatively high rates of stable disease. Two recently approved agents, a kinase inhibitor and a mTOR inhibitor, are recommended for use as first-line therapies against renal cell carcinoma. An additional approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor, sorafenib, is recommended as second-line therapy. More clinical research on these agents and their use in combination, especially sequentially, is warranted.