New treatments for kidney cancer

doi:10.1136/bmj.39469.564734.80

BMJ 2008;336:681-682 (29 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39469.564734.80

Editorials

New treatments for kidney cancer

New treatments offer hope but await regulatory approval in theUK

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Renal cell cancer is a relatively unusual tumour. It accountsfor less than 1% of deaths from malignant disease and is diagnosedin about 2500 people each year in the United Kingdom and 200000 people worldwide.¹ ² Our understanding of the molecularbiology of renal cell cancer has recently undergone many changes.These changes have informed the development of drugs, and newtreatments have become available. The most recent of these,the multitargeting kinase inhibitors, have improved the outlookof patients with renal cell cancer to such an extent that oldertreatments are becoming obsolete. However, despite evidenceof their effectiveness their availability in the UK has laggedbehind that in the United States because of the time taken toobtain regulatory approval. So what is the evidence of the effectivenessof these treatments?

The clue to the molecular changes involved in renal cell cancercome from the Von Hippel . . . [Full text of this article]

Jonathan Waxman, professor of oncology, Laura Kenny, specialist registrar in oncology, Sarah Ngan, clinical research fellow in oncology

¹ Department of Oncology, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London W12 0NN

j.waxman@imperial.ac.uk