BACKGROUND: Renal cell carcinoma is the most commonly diagnosed primary malignant tumor of the kidney in adults, and includes the variant of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma. Despite new targeted therapies that improve progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) for early-stage renal cell carcinoma, the 5-year survival for patients with stage IV renal cell carcinoma remains below 10%, and the 50% OS is less than one year. Metastatic renal cell carcinoma can be resistant to cytotoxic chemotherapy. This report is of a case of stage IV chromophobe renal cell carcinoma that responded well to treatment with the oncolytic ECHO-7 virus, Rigvir®.

CASE REPORT: In December 2015, a 59-year-old man presented with a right-sided chromophobe renal cell carcinoma stage IV (pT₁N₀M₁) with adrenal gland metastasis. He underwent right nephro-adrenalectomy followed by treatments with Rigvir® (≥10⁶ TCID₅₀/ml) by intramuscular (i.m.) injection on three consecutive days. Treatment with Rigvir® continued once per week for three months, and from March 2016, once per month, with continued treatment until computed tomography (CT) scans confirmed that the tumor metastases had stabilized.

CONCLUSIONS: This case report has demonstrated that the oncolytic ECHO-7 virus, Rigvir® should be evaluated further as a potential treatment for advanced renal carcinoma.

Keywords: Carcinoma, Renal Cell, Oncolytic Virotherapy, Oncolytic Viruses, Adrenal Gland Neoplasms, Adrenalectomy, Enterovirus B, Human, Kidney Neoplasms, Nephrectomy