Novel Molecular Targets for the Therapy of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Emerging from a largely cytokine-based era, the last several years have witnessed a dramatic change in the therapeutic landscape of renal cancer. Molecularly targeted and antiangiogenic agents now form the backbone of most therapeutic strategies for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Although the next few years may not see such broad paradigm shifts, there are ongoing areas of development including vaccine and immunotherapies which do diverge from this paradigm and hold promise to improve therapeutic outcomes for patients with mRCC. [Discovery Medicine 13(73):461-471, June 2012]