Editorial on “Adjuvant treatment for high-risk clear cell renal cancer: updated results of a high-risk subset of the ASSURE randomized trial”

We read with great interest the paper entitled “Adjuvant Treatment for High-Risk Clear Cell Renal Cancer Updated Results of a High-Risk Subset of the ASSURE Randomized Trial” by Haas et al. (1). Last year, the same group published the results of a randomized phase III trial ASSURE comparing 1-year treatment with sorafenib (400 mg twice daily), sunitinib (50 mg/day for 4 weeks of every 6 weeks), or placebo as adjuvant therapies for patients with completely resected renal cell carcinoma (RCC), without reporting significant improvements of the disease-free survival (DFS) in the study arms (2). More recently, Ravaud and his group firstly showed the results of a 750-patient randomized study, S-TRAC (3), (sunitinib 50 mg daily with 4/2 schedule vs. placebo in clear cell RCC predominant pT3-4 or node-positive disease).