Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) is a common tumor of the elderly, which has consistently increased in incidence over the past decade. While operative techniques have advanced in recent years and now offer renal preservation and minimal operative trauma where possible, adjuvant measures are not established. Medical treatment remains mostly confined to those with relapsed or metastatic disease, when local therapies are not suitable. The first wave of medical treatments for RCC consisted of cytokines, which had some impact on patient prognosis (overall survival increased to a median of 13 months), but clearly lacked efficacy. Unraveling the molecular carcinogenesis of clear cell RCC spurred the development of targeted therapies, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), which inhibit the tumor vasculature and have noticeably improved the efficacy of RCC medical treatment. More recently, check point inhibitors (CPI) have entered the therapeutic arena – the latest milestone of clinical development. These tools allow further optimization of treatment by permitting combinations of different therapies. Today, first-line therapies are composed of CPI-based combinations, which have shifted median overall survival expectation to >40 months.
These live webinars bring together a panel of international experts, who will discuss the rapid development of medical treatments with a particular focus on contemporary medical treatment in advanced or metastatic RCC.
