Is There a Role for Adjuvant Therapy in High-Risk Renal Cancer?

Following radical nephrectomy, systemic failure rates are higher than 50% in patients with locally advanced renal cell carcinoma. Given the lack of curative systemic therapies for patients with metastatic disease, the development of an effective adjuvant therapy is a critical unmet need. The recent randomized, double-blind, phase III ASSURE trial failed to demonstrate a benefit for 1 year of either adjuvant sorafenib or sunitinib versus placebo in this setting (NEJM JW Oncol Hematol May 2016 and Lancet 2016; 387:2008).

Now, an international group of investigators conducted an industry-sponsored, randomized, double-blind, phase III adjuvant trial of 615 patients with locoregional, high-risk (stage 3 or node-positive) clear-cell renal cancer w…