Does sunitinib still have a place in the current recommendations for the systemic treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma?

Abstract

Renal cancer is a common malignancy. The frequency of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the structure of oncological diseases is steadily increasing. Despite the migration of the stage towards an increase in the frequency of primary detection of localized forms of the disease, renal cancer belongs to the aggressive and unpredictable malignant neoplasms. One third of patients already have distant metastases at the time of diagnosis. Surgery is the only radical method of treatment of renal cancer. However, despite the successes of surgery in the treatment of RCC, according to various data, more than 30% of radically operated patients show dissemination of the tumor process during follow-up. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are ineffective in treating metastatic RCC (mRCC). The results of nonspecific immunotherapy in the treatment of metastatic renal cancer were also unsatisfactory. Progress in the study of molecular biology has led to the discovery of a new group of anti-tumor drugs related to angiogenesis inhibitors. The use of targeted therapies has increased the efficacy of drug therapy in the treatment of mRCC several times over the use of cytokine immunotherapy. One of the first such drugs registered in 2007 for the treatment of mRCC was sunitinib, which in a number of clinical trials has demonstrated the greatest efficacy and acceptable toxicity. Along with new drug regimens, the multikinase inhibitor sunitinib remains the drug of choice for first-line therapy of inoperable locally advanced and disseminated clear cell and non-small cell RCC in patients with favorable prognosis. The literature review presents a critical analysis of the data related to sunitinib research in kidney cancer and changes in the position of monotherapy with this drug in advanced forms of the disease.