Adjuvant therapy for RCC: considerations beyond survival metrics

Approximately 70% of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) present with localized disease, which is typically managed by surgery. However, up to 40% of these patients will experience recurrence, either locally or with distant metastases.1 Adjuvant therapy with pembrolizumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, has shown promising results, improving both disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS), but this remains inconsistent across clinical trials.2 As treatment regimens evolve, the need to identify different options and combinations to obtain the best outcomes for patients has rapidly become vitally important in the era of immunotherapy.