Renal cell cancer incidence is fastly growing worldwide. In spite of major
advances in the treatment of metastatic disease, to date there is no adjuvant therapy proven
feasible in high risk patients after radical resection. An effective adjuvant agent against
renal cell cancer should be relatively non toxic, have estabilished efficacy in the metastatic
setting and have demonstrated effectiveness against the standard of care in randomized
Phase III trials. The development of adjuvant therapy requires the proper identification of
patients at highest risk of relapse; our ability to predict the recurrence has much room for
improvement. To date, only an autologous vaccine has achieved a significant benefit in the
adjuvant setting for renal cell carcinoma. The recent arrival of new drug classes, such as
tyrosine kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies, strongly improving overall and
progression free survivals in the metastatic disease, has renewed the hopes on the adjuvant
treatment of the disease. Several studies have been performed in the past using radiation
treatment and systemic agents, including chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hormonal
treatments, with adjuvant purpose; new trials are in progress to evaluate the effectiveness of
antiangiogenic agents in this setting. An overall review of the completed and upcoming
trials and patents on this issue shall be discussed in this chapter.
Keywords: Adjuvant chemoimmunotherapy, adjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant
drugs, adjuvant hormonal therapy, adjuvant immunotherapy, adjuvant radiation
therapy, adjuvant targeted therapy, adjuvant therapy, antiangiogenic drugs,
chemoimmunotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, immunotherapy, kidney
cancer, new drugs, postoperative treatment, radiation therapy, RCC, renal cell
carcinoma, targeted drugs, vaccine.
