Comparison of second-line treatments in metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients: A single-center experience

Renal cell carcinoma is the 10th most common type of cancer, accounting for 3.7% of all cancers. Our study examines patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma who received Axitinib or Nivolumab as second-line treatment. This study was designed as a retrospective analysis. Patients who received Axitinib or Nivolumab as second-line treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma at the Istanbul University Oncology Institute Medical Oncology outpatient clinic were included in the study. A total of 81 patients were included in the study, with a median follow-up period of 18.5 months (2–260 months). Of these patients, 29 (35.8%) received Axitinib as second-line treatment, while 52 (64.2%) received Nivolumab. The median duration of second-line treatment was 14 months (6-52) for Axitinib and 13.5 months (3–77) for Nivolumab. In our study, Nivolumab was found to have statistically better PFS and OS outcomes than Axitinib in male patients, patients diagnosed with metastatic disease, those with a favorable or intermediate International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium risk score, patients diagnosed with metastatic disease or who developed metastasis within 12 months of diagnosis, those who developed metastasis ≥ 24 months after diagnosis, and patients with metastasis in a single organ. Both drugs are recommended as monotherapy for second-line and later treatments in the current NCCN guidelines for kidney cancers. Although there is no study in the literature showing that axitinib is more effective than nivolumab, nivolumab was found to be much more effective than axitinib in our study. Prospective studies with higher number of patients are needed on this subject.