Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is resistant to conventional chemotherapy and
radiotherapy. However, immunotherapy appears to be effective in 15–20% of cases, with
interleukin-2 becoming the standard therapy for this disease. As a consequence of the
immune susceptibility of RCC, other avenues of immunotherapy are being explored,
such as nonmyeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation (NST). A number of trials
have shown NST to be effective in varying degrees, causing partial or complete
regression. Although nonmyeloablative conditioning is safer than myeloablative
conditioning, its role has yet to be clearly proven as many studies have shown variable
effect. Alongside this limitation, transplant-related toxicity also forms obstacles.
Regardless of the limitation of NST, further refinement of the technique, with appropriate
patient selection, may lead to this being an effective therapeutic choice for a significant
number of individuals.