Are you surprised that targeted therapeutics for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have not improved survival?

A study published recently in Urologia Internationalis (online ahead of print) found that the advent of targeted therapeutic agents for treating metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC)—which began with the FDA approval of sorafenib in 2005—has not led to an improvement in survival rates.

The study included 7,047 patients with metastatic RCC who were grouped into 3 time periods: 2001–2005 (time period 1), 2006–2007 (time period 2), and 2008–2009 (time period 3). The time period 2006–2009 represented the era of targeted RCC therapy. The 1-year relative survival rates for time periods 1, 2, and 3 were 26.5%, 28.0%, and 26.9%, respectively.

The 3-year survival rates for time periods 1 and 2 were 10.2% and 10.6%, respectively. No 3-year survival data were available for time period 3. None of the differences in relative survival rates was statistically significant.