Current status of pharmacotherapy against metastatic renal cell carcinoma in Japan

So far, metastatic renal cell carcinoma has been one of the most treatment-resistant cancers. The extensive use of cytokines, such as interferon-α and interleukin-2, were carried out for metastatic renal cell carcinoma. However, significant advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying renal cell carcinoma have led to the development of molecular target-based drugs, which were desperately awaited for a long time, and now two types of molecular target-based drugs are available. Two vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors and two mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors have been approved and available in Japan. The molecular target-based drugs have unique and characteristic adverse events, whose profile are not well understood in Japanese patients, because most of the clinical trials were carried out in Europe and America. In contrast, immunotherapy is being reconsidered in the selection of more appropriate patients or as a combined treatment form with other drugs, because of few complete responses obtained and unexpected adverse events by molecular targeted treatments. We have several molecular targeted-drugs available at present and will have more, and we will actually use these drugs in various clinical settings, such as the presurgical setting, the adjuvant setting, sequential administration and combined administration, in addition to cytokines. Therefore, we need more elaborate studies to obtain the optimal treatment methods to maximize the effect of such agents to extend overall survival while maintaining quality of life of metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients. In this article, we reviewed the issues related to the current status of pharmacotherapy available for metastatic renal cell carcinoma.