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 among Egyptian patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Materials and Methods: Between January 2010 and December 2013, 44 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who received sunitinib at an oncology center of Cairo university hospitals were enrolled in this retrospective analysis. Results: The median age of the patients was 53 years, 22 (50%) having localized disease at presentation, while the remaining half of the patients presented with metastasis. At a median follow up of 19 months, 9 (21%) patients achieved partial remission, while disease was 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), while progression free survival was 12 months (95%CI 11.6 - 12.3). The most commonly reported non hematological grade 3 adverse events included mucositis (15.9%), hand-foot syndrome (13.6%), and fatigue (9%), while the predominant grade 3 or 4 laboratory abnormalities were neutropenia (6.8%), followed by anemia in 4.5% of patients. Conclusions: Our efficacy data were comparable to the published literature in terms of progression free 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.