Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is regarded as one of the most refractory malignancies. A further study of the molecular mechanism of RCC formation has led to a series of successful examples for treatment of patients with advanced RCC. Over the past 20 years, a nonspecific immunotherapy, with cytokines, has been employed as the gold standard for therapy of metastatic RCC. However, with scientific development and clinical testing of new drugs, targeted molecular cancer therapy has become a focus of interest. At the same time, with a better understanding of RCC, the treatment method has converged on anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and related molecular-targeted pathways. A large amount of research and numerous clinical trials have demonstrated the clinical efficacy of the targeted molecular therapies in patients with metastatic RCC. For example sorafenib and sunitinib were approved, in 2005 and 2006 respectively, by the U.S. FDA for treating advanced RCC. In this report, issues such as the importance of VEGF in RCC and the studies of bevacizumab, sunitinib and sorafenib in treating metastatic RCC etc., are reviewed.