Cancer Health Center

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Everolimus is an orally administered mTOR inhibitor that was evaluated in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled phase III trial. The trial enrolled patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma with a clear cell component that had progressed during or within 6 months of stopping treatment with sunitinib or sorafenib, or both drugs. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.0 months with everolimus compared with 1.9 months with placebo.[23] No difference in OS was reported.

Based on research showing that most clear cell renal cell carcinomas carried a mutation resulting in constitutive production of cytokines stimulating angiogenesis, several agents that targeted vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-mediated pathways were developed. Several of these agents have been shown in randomized controlled trials to significantly delay progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma, but none has resulted in a statistically significant increase in OS as conventionally assessed. Many of these trials allowed crossover upon progression and, in some instances, other agents with similar biological activity were available to patients after they withdrew from the clinical trial. These facts may have made it more difficult to detect an OS benefit. For the clinician, this makes it challenging to determine the real benefit of these drugs to the patient. The four FDA-approved anti-VEGF agents include three oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors, pazopanib, sorafenib and sunitinib, and an anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody, bevacizumab.

Sunitinib and the combination of bevacizumab plus interferon-alpha have each been associated with longer PFS than interferon-alpha alone in randomized controlled trials. Sunitinib is an orally available multikinase inhibitor (VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, PDGFR, c-Kit). In 750 previously untreated patients, all of whom had clear cell kidney cancer, a phase III trial compared sunitinib with interferon-alpha.[24] Sunitinib was associated with a median PFS of 11 months compared with 5 months for interferon-alpha. The HR for progression was 0.42 (95% CI, 0.32-0.54; P < .001).[24][Level of evidence: 1iiDiii] However, the analysis for OS showed a strong but statistically nonsignificant trend to improved survival (26.4 months vs. 21.8 months, HR 0.82; 95% CI, 0.669-1.001; P = .051).[25][Level of evidence: 1iiDiii] Bevacizumab, a monoclonal antibody that binds to and neutralizes circulating VEGF protein, delayed progression of clear cell renal cell carcinoma when compared with placebo in patients with disease refractory to biological therapy.[26] Similarly, bevacizumab plus interferon-alpha resulted in longer PFS but not OS compared with interferon-alpha alone in two similarly-designed randomized controlled trials.[27,28]

Pazopanib and sorafenib are both orally available multikinase inhibitors (VEGFR-1, VEGFR-2, VEGFR-3, PDGFR, and c-KIT for pazopanib and cRAF, bRAF, KIT FLT-3, VEGF-2, VEGFR-3, and PDGFR-? for sorafitinib) and have also been approved for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma.[29]