The UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) announced in a press release that they recommend sunitinib as first line treatment for metastastatic renal cancer.

What is sunitinib? A definition from the National Cancer Institute Dictionary of Cancer Terms

A drug used to treat gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) that have not responded to treatment with imatinib mesylate (Gleevec). Sunitinib maleate is also used to treat advanced kidney cancer and is being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer. It is a type of tyrosine kinase inhibitor, a type of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor inhibitor, and a type of angiogenesis inhibitor. Also called SU011248, SU11248, sunitinib, and Sutent.

Some further details about the decision and the role of immunotherapy in the current management of renal cell cancer:

The guidance on first line use of sunitinib has been developed on the understanding that the currently available treatment for advanced and/or metastatic renal cell carcinoma is immunotherapy (namely interferon-alfa and interleukin-2). The Institute recognises that there are people who have had or who are currently receiving immunotherapy and wish to clarify the implications of the guidance for these people. Sunitinib can be considered as a treatment option for those people with advanced and/or metastatic RCC who are currently receiving immunotherapy or who have had immunotherapy before the release of our final recommendations to ensure they are not disadvantaged by our proposed guidance.

Guidance PDF: NICE recommends sunitinib for the first-line treatment of renal cancer

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