Sites of disease as predictors of outcome in metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients treated with first-line sunitinib or sorafenib

Background: This study investigated whether the effectiveness of first-line tyrosine-kinase inhibitors was associated with sites of disease in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Methods: A retrospective cohort of consecutive mRCC patients receiving first-line sorafenib (SO) or sunitinib (SU) was analyzed.

Results: In total, 203 patients received SO and 99 SU. In patients with liver metastasis, SU was associated with a 18% higher risk of time-to-treatment failure (TTF), and a 39% higher risk of death than SO: conversely, patients without liver metastases who received SU showed a 46% decreased risk of TTF and 62% decreased risk of death.

Conclusions: mRCC patients with liver metastases treated with first-line SO showed a better outcome compared with SU, while mRCC patients without liver metastases treated with first-line SU showed a better outcome compared with SO.