Temsirolimus is an intravenous drug for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC), developed by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and approved by the FDA in late May 2007, and was also approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) on November 2007. It is a derivative of sirolimus.
The drug is promising for RCC patients. A phase III clinical study of the drug showed a 49 percent increase in patients' median overall survival time (10.9 months). The drug was administered to patients who had received no prior systemic therapy; however, this study only included patients with a poor prognosis. The benefits of temsirolimus in patients with favorable or intermediate prognostic factors remains to be elucidated.
