Adjuvant therapy for locally advanced renal cell carcinoma: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Many adjuvant therapies have been widely used in an attempt to reduce the local recurrence or distant metastasis of locally advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after surgical resection. However, the benefits of adjuvant therapy remain controversial. Thus, we performed this study to analyze the role and safety of adjuvant therapy in renal cancer setting.

We comprehensively searched PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library for published randomized controlled trials comparing adjuvant therapy (chemotherapy, vaccine therapy, immune therapy, and targeted therapy) versus no active treatment after surgery among patients with locoregional RCC. Outcomes of interest were disease-free survival, overall survival, and severe toxicities. Different kinds of adjuvant therapy were evaluated separately.

Twelve studies (5,936 patients) were included in the present analysis. Adjuvant therapy did not contribute to overall survival (HR = 1.04; 95% CI: 0.95-1.15; P = 0.395; I² = 0%) or disease-free survival (HR = 1.00; 95% CI: 0.92-1.08; P = 0.971; I² = 35%) when compared to placebo or observation. No survival benefit was observed according to subgroup analyses (targeted therapy, vaccine therapy, and immune therapy). Moreover, adjuvant therapy increased obviously the risk of toxicities.

The addition of adjuvant therapy provided no survival benefit but increased the rates of adverse events for locally advanced RCC patients.