Updated results presented at the Kidney Cancer Research Summit in Boston show several approaches extending survival or improving quality of life for patients with clear-cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). A five-year analysis of the phase 3 KEYNOTE-564 study found that adjuvant pembrolizumab cut the risk of recurrence or death by 29% versus placebo (hazard ratio 0.71) and reduced the risk of death by 34% (HR 0.66), confirming the immune-checkpoint inhibitor as standard care for patients at intermediate- or high-risk of recurrence after nephrectomy. Separately, a phase 2 study of metastasis-directed stereotactic radiotherapy in oligometastatic ccRCC reported a median progression-free survival of 34 months and a three-year overall survival rate of 86.5%. Investigators said the radiation-only strategy, delivered without systemic drugs, offers lower toxicity and cost compared with immunotherapy or tyrosine-kinase inhibitors. Early-stage data highlighted additional options. Belzutifan, a hypoxia-inducible factor-2α inhibitor, prolonged quality-adjusted time without symptoms or toxicity in advanced disease, while an investigational CAR T-cell therapy showed encouraging activity in heavily pre-treated patients, opening the door to cell-based treatments in kidney cancer. Taken together, the findings underscore rapid diversification of therapeutic choices for kidney-cancer patients—from improved adjuvant immunotherapy to less burdensome local treatments and novel targeted or cellular approaches.