[Critical analysis of prognostic factors for metastatic renal cell carcinoma]

A prognostic factor is a statistically associated variable with an event in a certain context. In the case of metastatic renal cell carcinoma, the variables are the clinical, biological and histological features of the cancer and its host, the event is the deaths linked to the cancer and context is the treatment suffered by the patient. Several prognostic classifications have permitted to predict the response to the different treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. This review has aimed to put the main prognostic classifications in context of applicability so that the clinician uses them wisely. The classification of the French Group of Immunotherapy allows the clinician to determine the indications of treatment with IL-2 and IFN and Motzer classification of 2002 must be reviewed to determine the indications targeted therapies.