Pazopanib-the Latest First-Line Standard of Care Targeted Kinase Inhibitor for the Treatment of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

Kidney cancer is the most lethal of the genitourinary malignancies. Prior to the advent of cytokine-based immunotherapy 25 years ago, surgery was the only viable treatment for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Adjuvant therapy with interferon and interleukin-2 revolutionized the treatment paradigm, although responders were too often uncommon. The mid-portion of the last decade saw born a new class of drugs aimed at the angiogenesis/VEGF pathway, common to most clear-cell RCC. The latest FDA-approved compound in this class has promised to yield equal or better first-line efficacy as its predecessors while, perhaps, providing better tolerability. Here we review the available data at present regarding pazopanib.