Treatment Outcome and Survival Associated With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma of Non–Clear-Cell Histology

RCC consists of a heterogeneous group of tumors including clear-cell, papillary, chromophobe, collecting duct, and unclassified cell types. Non-clear-cell histologies constitute less than 10% of patients in general populations of patients with advanced RCC treated on clinical trials. Metastatic non-clear-cell RCC is characterized by a resistance to systemic therapy and poor survival, with the survival for patients with chromophobe tumors longer than that for patients with metastatic collecting duct or papillary RCC. Treatment with novel agents on clinical trials is warranted.