Role of everolimus in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma

The therapeutic options in metastatic renal cell carcinoma have been recently expanded by the discovery of the VHL gene, the mutation of which is associated with development of clear cell carcinoma, and overexpression of the angiogenesis pathway, resulting in a very vascular tumor. This breakthrough in science led to the development of a variety of small molecules inhibiting the VEGF-dependent angiogenic pathway, such as sunitinib and sorafenib. These agents prolong overall and progression-free survival, respectively. The result was the development of robust front-line therapies which ultimately fail and are associated with disease progression. In this setting, there existed an unmet need for developing second-line therapies for patients with refractory metastatic renal cell carcinoma (MRCC). Everolimus (RAD 001) is an oral inhibitor of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. The double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase III trial of everolimus (RECORD-1) conducted in MRCC patients after progression on sunitinib or sorafenib, or both, demonstrated a progression-free survival benefit favoring the study drug (4.9 months vs 1.9 months, HR 0.33, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.43, P ≤ 0 0.001). Everolimus thus established itself as a standard of care in the second-line setting for patients with MRCC who have failed treatment with VEGF receptor inhibitors.