Adjuvant therapy in renal-cell carcinoma: Is it prime time yet?

More than 200,000 people worldwide are diagnosed with renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) each year, and almost one third of them will die from metastatic disease (1). Although 5-year survival rate for metastatic disease has increased from 34% in 1954 to 73% in 2011, it still remains low (8–10%) in metastatic setting (2). Although nephrectomy can be curative for the majority of patients presenting with localized disease, nearly 40% of patients initially diagnosed with stages II and III, will eventually relapse (3). Taking the above into consideration, development of an effective adjuvant treatment for patients in high-risk for relapse following nephrectomy is needed.