Open Access

ARTICLE

Prolonging survival in metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients treated with targeted anticancer agents: a single-center experience of treatment strategy modifications

Noriko Ninomiya, Satoshi Tamada, Minoru Kato, Takeshi Yamasaki, Taro Iguchi, Tatsuya Nakatani

Department of Urology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan
Address correspondence to Dr. Satoshi Tamada, Department of Urology, Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-4-3 Asahi-machi, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan 545-8585

Canadian Journal of Urology 2015, 22(3), 7798-7804.

Abstract

Introduction: We investigated therapeutic outcomes in consecutive patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with targeted anticancer agents from 2008 to 2014 in order to determine the efficacy of adverse event management for such agents and the best sequence in which to use them.
Materials and methods: We analyzed 132 consecutive patients who had taken targeted anticancer agents for metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Of these, 101 patients received therapy between 2008 and 2011 (pioneer group) and 31 patients received therapy between 2011 and 2014 (contemporary group). Patients of the contemporary group were provided with aggressive adverse event management and education on such management, were treated according to a standard therapeutic strategy, and were able to receive axitinib as a second-line drug. We analyzed the incidence of hand-foot syndrome. Furthermore, we compared relative dose intensity between patients in the pioneer and contemporary groups who took sunitinib as first-line therapy. We also compared overall survival between the two groups to determine whether adverse event management improved prognosis.
Results: The incidence of hand-foot syndrome was significantly reduced by aggressive adverse event management. Relative dose intensity was significantly higher in the contemporary group than in the pioneer group. Median survival time was significantly longer in the contemporary group than in the pioneer group.
Conclusion: Our results suggest that aggressive management of adverse events associated with targeted drugs, the use of sunitinib as a first-line therapy, and the availability of axitinib as a second-line therapy all contribute to prolonged survival for metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients.

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