Real-world experience of everolimus as second-line treatment in metastatic renal cell cancer after failure of pazopanib

AIM We aimed to provide real-life data on the outcomes of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients treated with everolimus as second-line treatment after failure of first-line pazopanib. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data from the medical charts of mRCC patients from 8 centers in Greece and Spain were reviewed. All patients had received or were continuing to receive second-line everolimus treatment after failure of first-line treatment with pazopanib. No other previous therapies were allowed. The primary end point was the determination of progression-free survival (PFS). RESULTS In total, 31 patients were enrolled. Of these, 26% had performance status (PS) >0, 88% were of intermediate/poor Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) risk group, and only 61% had undergone prior nephrectomy. Median PFS was 3.48 months (95% CI: 2.37-5.06 months). Median overall survival (OS) from everolimus initiation was 8.9 months (95% CI: 6.47-13.14 months). Median OS from pazopanib initiation was 14.78 months (95% CI: 10.54-19.08 months). Furthermore, 32% of patients temporarily discontinued everolimus due to adverse events (AEs), and 22% of patients discontinued everolimus permanently due to toxicity. Most common toxicities were anemia (29%), stomatitis (26%), pneumonitis (19%), and fatigue (10%). Moreover, 14 AEs (27%) were graded as 3 or 4 and were reported by 13 patients (42%). CONCLUSION This study provides data exclusively on the sequence pazopanib-everolimus in mRCC. Everolimus has a favorable safety profile and is active. The short PFS and OS could be attributed to the fact that the pazopanib-everolimus sequence was mainly offered to patients with adverse prognostic features, resulting in a modest increase in the combined OS of our population.