Sunitinib or Pazopanib: Is There Any Difference Between Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors in the Pre-Nivolumab Setting in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma?

Introduction Treatment options for metastatic renal cell carcinoma disease have been improved in recent years. However, there is still no optimal treatment sequence or combination for metastatic disease. We aimed to investigate whether patients differed in terms of disease outcomes regarding pre-nivolumab tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Material and methods The analysis of patients was performed after all cohorts were sub-grouped into two groups according to pre-nivolumab TKIs as following the sunitinib arm and the pazopanib arm. Result A total of 75 patients were included in this study. The median follow-up time was eight months for all cohorts. The objective response rate was statistically significantly higher in the pazopanib arm as compared to the sunitinib arm (56% vs 30%, p=0.02). Progression-free survival was significantly higher in pazopanib than sunitinib (10.3 months vs 5.3 months, p=0.02). Multivariate analysis revealed that pazopanib treatment was associated with better progression-free survival (HR: 0.44, 95 CI; 0.22-0.91, p=0.02). While the median overall survival for patients who had received sunitinib was 11.0 months, it has not been reached the median in the pazopanib arm (11.0 months vs NR, p=0.051). Discussion We demonstrated significantly better progression-free survival and a higher objective response rate with nivolumab treatment in patients who had received pazopanib as compared with patients who received sunitinib in the pre-nivolumab period.