[Metastatic renal cell carcinoma, back to the future]

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is composed of several histopathological entities. There are more than 1,000 new cases in Switzerland every year, one third of which are diagnosed at an advanced stage. The development of chemotherapy had no impact on its overall prognosis. Since the mid-2000s, treatment of metastatic RCC was transformed by the arrival of targeted therapies. In the early 90s, high dose interleukine-2 (IL-2) allowed first cases of complete response, demonstrating the immunogenicity of RCC. More than twenty years after its first steps, immunotherapy progressed due to the recently approved nivolumab (an anti-PD1 monoclonal antibody) in second line of treatment. This review outlines the progress that has been made in the understanding and treatment of this pathology.