MIAMI—In a population-based setting, sunitinib and pazopanib have similar efficacy in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC), a study presented at the 14th International Kidney Cancer Symposium (IKCS) has shown.1

Although sunitinib and pazopanib were compared in patients with mRCC in the head-to-head phase 3 COMPARZ study,2 researchers sought to compare first-line sunitinib with pazopanib in a population-based setting in order to confirm treatment outcomes.

For the study, researchers analyzed data from 3606 patients with mRCC treated with either first-line sunitinib or pazopanib who were included in the International mRCC Database Consortium (IMDC). Of those, 3226 received sunitinib while 380 received pazopanib. The overall median follow-up was 43.5 months (95% CI, 41.4-46.4).


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Results showed no difference in overall survival or progression-free survival between the 2 targeted therapies, and the response rate was similar in both groups.

Overall survival was 20.1 months (95% CI, 18.76-21.42) with sunitinib compared with 23.68 months (95% CI, 19.54-28.81) with pazopanib (HR, 0.952; 95% CI, 0.788-1.150; P = .61). Progression-free survival was 7.22 months (95% CI, 6.76-7.78) and 6.83 months (95% CI, 5.58-8.27), respectively (HR, 1.052; 95% CI, 0.908-1.220; P = .49).

“We found no difference in response rate between first-line sunitinib and pazopanib,” said José Manuel Ruiz-Morales, MD, of the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada, during the poster presentation.

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In comparison, the COMPARZ study demonstrated that pazopanib was noninferior to sunitinib in terms of progression-free survival and had similar overall survival.2

“Recent data on the individualization of sunitinib dosing is not captured in this study and is a subject of future investigation,” Dr. Ruiz-Morales noted.

Reference

  1. Ruiz-Morales JM, Wells JC, Donskov F, et al. First line sunitinib versus pazopanib in metastatic renal cell carcinoma: results from the International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium [abstract]. BJU Int. 2015. doi: 10.1111/bju.13365.
  2. Motzer RJ, Hutson TE, Cella D, et al. Pazopanib versus sunitinib in metastatic renal-cell carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 2013;369(8):722-731.