Targeted therapy for renal cell carcinoma: The next lap

Advances in rationally targeted therapeutics over the last decade have transformed the clinical care of advanced kidney cancer. While oncologists consolidate the gains of the wave of new agents, comprising a panoply of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors and inhibitors of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), there is an increasing sense that a plateau has been reached in the short term. It is sobering that all currently approved targeted therapies have not yielded durable remissions and remain palliative in intent. In the context of recent insights in kidney cancer biology, we review promising ongoing and future approaches for kidney cancer therapeutics aimed toward forging new paths in the systemic management of renal cell carcinoma. Broadly, candidate agents for such innovative strategies include immune check-point inhibitors, anti-cancer stem cell agents, next-generation anti-vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and anti-mTOR agents as well as more investigational agents in the preclinical and early clinical development settings.