Allogeneic stem cell transplantation for renal cell carcinoma

Although the prognosis for patients with metastatic kidney cancer remains poor, a number of promising immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of metastatic disease have been developed over the past decade. The response of some patients to cytokines such as interleukin-2 and interferon-alpha, and more recently, vaccination with dendritic cell/tumor fusions has laid the ground work for ongoing immune-based investigational approaches. Allogeneic stem cell transplantation is a potent form of immunotherapy capable of delivering potentially curative immune-mediated anti-tumor effects against a number of different hematological malignancies. Knowledge of renal cell carcinoma's unusual susceptibility to immune attack has led to the hypothesis that tumor rejection, mediated through immunocompetent donor T-cells, might be generated against this solid tumor following the transplantation of an allogeneic immune system. Although clinical trials are early and ongoing, the recent observation of metastatic disease regression following non-myeloablative stem cell transplantation has identified renal cell carcinoma as being susceptible to a graft-versus-tumor effect. Disease responses following such therapy have ranged from partial to complete and have been observed even in patients who have failed conventional cytokine based strategies. This article reviews the design, methodology and early clinical results of studies investigating the use of allogeneic stem cell transplantation in metastatic renal cell carcinoma.