Renal cell carcinoma

The past year has been an exciting one for progress in our understanding of renal cell carcinoma. Substantial insight has been gained into our understanding of the immune system and how it both interacts with and is affected by renal cell carcinoma. The roles of the interferons and interleukins and the patients who are most likely to benefit from these agents have been better defined. Some new biologic markers of renal cell carcinoma have been described that may prove useful both prognostically and therapeutically. Lastly, advancement has been made in our basic understanding of the molecular aspects of renal cell carcinoma, which hold promise for better targeted, less toxic, and hopefully more effective treatment of patients with advanced disease.