Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. Aug 24, 2020; 11(8): 541-562
Published online Aug 24, 2020. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v11.i8.541
Combination drug regimens for metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma
Viraj V Khetani, Daniella E Portal, Mansi R Shah, Tina Mayer, Eric A Singer
Viraj V Khetani, Daniella E Portal, Mansi R Shah, Tina Mayer, Eric A Singer, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, United States
Author contributions: Khetani VV prepared the initial draft of the manuscript; Portal DE and Shah MR contributed in the reviewing and revising of the manuscript; Mayer TM and Singer EA revised and edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Singer EA receives research support from Astellas/Medivation; Mayer T received research support from ICON Medical, AstraZeneca, research support from Merck, Sotio, Pfizer. No other conflict-of-interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Eric A Singer, FACS, MA, MD, Associate Professor, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, 195 Little Albany Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, United States. eric.singer@rutgers.edu
Received: March 14, 2020
Peer-review started: March 14, 2020
First decision: April 29, 2020
Revised: May 11, 2020
Accepted: July 18, 2020
Article in press: July 18, 2020
Published online: August 24, 2020
Processing time: 160 Days and 0.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The treatment of metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) remains a challenge given the broad spectrum of disease presentations and outcomes, variety of treatment options without clear optimal sequencing, and the low rate of complete response to systemic monotherapy. The core of this work reviews the current status of systemic combination drug options in the treatment of metastatic ccRCC, encompassing the novel combinations of tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors, with a focus on rationale for use, efficacy, and side effect profiles. We also discuss the role of biomarkers in the development of future therapeutic options.