Elderly patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are often underrepresented in clinical trials to treat the kidney cancer. However, according to a recent study published in JAMA Network Open

Thirteen years of data were analysed from Medicare patients in the USA. Patients who received targeted therapies had more complex medical needs than those who received the older, more toxic treatments, such as interleukin 2 (IL 2).

The trial showed that newer targeted treatments are offering hope to more people by offering a modest survival benefit as compared to older treatments, even though the targeted therapy group had medical characteristics that put them at risk of worse outcomes.