Effective Adjuvant Therapy for High-Risk Renal Cancer: The Search Continues

Metastatic renal cell cancer remains an incurable, albeit treatable, disease, thus the search continues for effective adjuvant therapy for patients at high risk for systemic failure following curative-intent nephrectomy. Everolimus, an oral mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor, was approved by the FDA for use in metastatic renal cancer based on improved progression-free survival compared to placebo in the salvage setting. Now, in a partly industry-funded, randomized, multicenter, phase 3 study, investigators evaluated 1 year of adjuvant everolimus (10 mg daily) versus placebo in patients with renal cancer at high or very high risk for systemic recurrence after nephrectomy.

The risk of recurrence was based on a modification of the U…