Plimack ER, Tannir N, Lin E et al.
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia,PA, USA.
Cancer 2009;115:1859–66.
Editor’s note: Standard treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) used to be immunotherapy, including interferon-
α (IFN-
α) and interleukin-2. However, several new drugs have been introduced to the market over the past few years, and agents that target the cell signaling pathways involved in angiogenesis have demonstrated increased response and survival rates compared with the older therapies (e.g.
N Engl J Med 2003;349:427–34,
N Engl J Med 2007;356:125–34). This study is a retrospective analysis of patients with advanced RCC treated at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA) who received either IFN-
α or antivascular agents such as sorafenib, bevacizumab, and erlotinib. In particular, the authors wanted to investigate whether there was any difference in the pattern of disease progression in patients receiving these two types of therapies.