- Patients must have histologically confirmed renal cell carcinoma, stage III or IV before starting study drugs per AJCC (American Joint Committee on Cancer) 7th edition 7. Patients undergoing a potentially curative metastasectomy are eligible if the tissue from the surgery is enough to make a vaccine. Patients who are asymptomatic from their disease and with low volume metastatic disease (5 lesions or less, all <2cm) are eligible.