Hypertension and hypothyreoidism are frequent side effects of VEGFR-inhibitors. We investigated whether hypertension or hypothyreoidism diagnosed during sunitinib treatment is associated with treatment efficacy.
Material and methods: Sixty-four consecutive patients with metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) were treated with sunitinib in a single center. Hypertension was defined as persistent blood pressure >150/100 mmHg or blood pressure requiring intensification of pre-existing anti-hypertensive medication. Hypothyreoidism was defined as elevation of TSH levels and clinical symptoms requiring hormone replacement therapy (≥Gr. II hypothyreoidim).
Results: Twenty-four (38%) patients developed hypertension and 12 (19%) hypothyreoidism. The dose of sunitinib administered was not significantly associated with hypertension or hypothyreoidism. There was no correlation between hypertension and hypothyreoidism. Hypertension was associated with frequent tumor response to sunitinib, a long time to disease progression and long overall survival (p= 0.001, 0.0003 and 0.001, respectively). In a multivariate analysis, hypertension was an independent predictor of progression-free survival (hazard ratio, 0.21; 95% CI 0.076 to 0.59, p=0.0030). There were no statistically significant differences in the frequency of ≥ grade 3 adverse events between patients with or without hypertension.
Conclusion: Sunitinib-associated hypertension may be a strong predictive marker for treatment efficacy in metastatic RCC.