Adjuvant therapy after nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma.

Adjuvant treatment with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor in renal cell carcinoma after nephrectomy has been reported through three clinical trials: S-TRAC, ASSURE and PROTECT. Only S-TRAC has been significantly positive on primary end-point disease-free survival under sunitinib compared to placebo, whereas ASSURE and PROTECT did not show any gain under sunitinib, sorafenib or pazopanib. This short review presents the differences between the trials and provides hypotheses on why S-TRAC may have been positive.