Combination therapy for renal cell cancer: what are possible options?

Antiangiogenic therapy has shown promise in the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Two classes of antiangiogenic drugs, the anti-vascular endothelial growth factor antibody bevacizumab and the tyrosine kinase inhibitors sorafenib, sunitinib and pazopanib, have shown efficacy in patients with RCC and are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment of this cancer. In practice, the clinical benefit of antiangiogenic drugs in RCC has been heterogeneous, and in patients who do respond, benefits are modest and/or short-lived. To improve efficacy, combination targeted therapy has been attempted, but with either very limited additional efficacy or nontolerable toxicities. Recent advances in the molecular understanding of tumor angiogenesis and mechanism of resistance, along with the rapid development of targeted drug discovery, have made it possible to further explore novel combination therapy for RCC.