Efficacy and Toxicity of Sunitinib in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients in Egypt

Background: To evaluate our results in terms of response, survival and toxicity profile of sunitinib amongEgyptian patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Materials and
Methods: Between January 2010 andDecember 2013, 44 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who received sunitinib at an oncology centerof Cairo university hospitals were enrolled in this retrospective analysis.
Results: The median age of the patientswas 53 years, 22 (50%) having localized disease at presentation ,while the remaining half of the patients presentedwith metastasis. At a median follow up of 19 months, 9 (21%) patients achieved partial remission, while diseasewas reported stable in 20 cases (45%) and progressive in 7 (16%), 4 (9%) being lost to follow up, and 4 (9%)had discontinued therapy due to toxicity. The median overall survival was 23 months (95%CI 15.2 - 30.9), whileprogression free survival was 12 months (95%CI 11.6 - 12.3). The most commonly reported non hematologicalgrade 3 adverse events included mucositis (15.9%), hand-foot syndrome (13.6%), and fatigue (9%), while thepredominant grade 3 or 4 laboratory abnormalities were neutropenia (6.8%), followed by anemia in 4.5% ofpatients.
Conclusions: Our efficacy data were comparable to the published literature in terms of progressionfree survival and overall survival , while toxicity profile is different from Asian and western countries. However,sunitinib adverse events were manageable and tolerable in most of our Egyptian patients