Efficacy of traditional and alternative sunitinib treatment schedules in J apanese patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma

• Published in: International journal of urology 2014-10, Vol.21 (10), p.1065-1068
• Main Authors: Ohzeki, Takayuki, Fukasawa, Satoshi, Komaru, Atsushi, Namekawa, Takeshi, Sato, Yosuke, Takagi, Kimiaki, Kobayashi, Masayuki, Uemura, Hirotsugu, Ichikawa, Tomohiko, Ueda, Takeshi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0919-8172; 1442-2042
• DOI: 10.1111/iju.12504

We report the adverse events and efficacy of traditional (4 weeks on 2 weeks off) and alternative sunitinib treatment schedules for J apanese patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. We retrospectively investigated 54 patients who received sunitinib for metastatic renal cell carcinoma between M ay 2006 and J une 2012: 32 received a traditional treatment schedule and 22 received an alternative schedule. According to the M emorial S loan‐ K ettering C ancer C enter risk classification, five patients had favorable prognoses, 42 had intermediate prognoses and seven had poor prognoses. The mean observation periods were 16.3 and 20 months for the traditional and alternative schedule groups, respectively. Adverse events were significantly less common in the alternative schedule group, including most high‐grade events. In the traditional and alternative schedule groups, median times to failure were 4.1 and 11.6 months ( P  = 0.040), median progression‐free survival times were 4.1 and 11.3 months ( P  = 0.031), and median overall survival times were 12.0 and 32.1 months ( P  = 0.018), respectively. Each of these measures was better in the group of patients who received an alternative treatment schedule, suggesting that individualized changes to the sunitinib administration schedule can be effective.