Perioperative systemic therapy in renal cell carcinoma

Purpose of review Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common kidney neoplasm. Localized RCC can be cured with nephrectomy. However, a proportion of patients will recur with incurable distant metastatic disease. There is a clear need for treatments to reduce the risk of RCC recurrence and thus improve survival. This review describes the landscape of perioperative therapy for RCC, focusing on more recent trials involving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Recent findings ICIs have significantly changed outcomes in advanced RCC. Four trials investigating the role of perioperative ICI for RCC are now reported. Only one trial utilizing adjuvant pembrolizumab (Keynote-564) has shown a disease-free survival benefit in resected RCC. Summary Patients with resected RCC should be counselled on their risk of recurrence and the potential option of adjuvant pembrolizumab, recognizing that overall survival data are not yet available.