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In the last decade, the development of immune checkpoint inhibitors have revolutionized the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, with the potential for dramatic changes in the therapeutic landscape. Nivolumab, a monoclonal antibody inhibitor of transmem-brane programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1), was approved as monotherapy in 2015 for advanced renal cell carcinoma in patients previously treated with an agent targeting vascular endothelial growth factor. In April 2018, the combination of nivolumab and ipilimumab, a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated antigen 4 inhibitor, was approved for patients with previously untreated intermediate- and poor-risk advanced renal cell carcinoma. Then, in 2019, combination therapies consisting of pembrolizumab (anti-PD-1) or avelumab (anti-PD-1 ligand, PD-L1) with axitinib (a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor) were also approved for use in all risk groups. This review pre-sents a brief historical review of the association between immunology and oncology; describes essential aspects of the mechanism of action of immune checkpoint inhibitors; discusses the current evidence regarding the clinical use of different immunotherapy regimens for the treatment of patients with renal cell carcinoma, both clear cell and other histological types; and provides general information on their adverse effects. The role of appropriate patient selection is analyzed to allow individualization of therapy and improve the already promising results. Finally, per-spectives on the future use of immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat renal cancer are discussed.