Sunitinib followed by sorafenib or vice versa for metastatic renal cell carcinoma--data from the Czech registry.

BACKGROUND Sequential therapy with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), sunitinib and sorafenib, is a common treatment choice for patients with advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) despite lack of randomised trials. The aim of this retrospective registry-based study was to analyse the outcomes of RCC patients treated with sunitinib-sorafenib or sorafenib-sunitinib sequence. PATIENTS AND METHODS The Czech database containing information on patients treated for mRCC using targeted agents was used as a source of data for retrospective analysis. There were 138 patients treated with sunitinib-sorafenib sequence and 122 patients treated with sorafenib-sunitinib sequence. RESULTS Progression-free survival (PFS) was 17.7 months for patients treated with sunitinib-sorafenib sequence and 18.8 months for those receiving sorafenib followed by sunitinib (P = 0.47). Overall survival (OS) at 1 year was 83% [95% confidence interval (CI) 77% to 90%] for patients treated with sunitinib-sorafenib and 84% (95% CI 77% to 91%) for sorafenib-sunitinib patients (P = 0.99). Treatment toxic effects were predictable but a significant proportion of patients (up to 14%-25% for different lines of therapy and used TKI) switched between TKIs or discontinued TKI therapy because of toxicity. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to most of the previously published reports, we have not observed improved PFS or OS for mRCC patients treated with the sorafenib-sunitinib sequence as compared to the sunitinib-sorafenib sequence.