Patients with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) typically receive systemic treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI). Side effects include the hand-foot syndrome (HFS), tiredness, nausea, decreased appetite, diarrhea, myelosuppression, and hypertension. This study seeks to define the relationship between the incidence of HFS after the first cycle of treatment with sunitinib as the first-line treatment for mRCC (50 mg/day, 6-week schedule: 4 weeks on and 2 weeks off) and progression-free survival. We found that patients, treated with sunitinib for mRCC, who did not experience HFS had the median progression-free survival of 9.8 months. HFS symptoms appeared in 20% of patients after the first treatment cycle. The appearance of HFS was a predictor of a longer progression-free survival. In fact, progression-free survival was elongated in the HFS group over and beyond the observation period of 60 months, which rendered the median progression-free survival calculation impossible. These findings reaffirm the importance of monitoring skin toxicity during treatment with TKI. We conclude that the appearance of adverse skin symptoms presages better outcomes in patients treated with sunitinib for mRCC.
Keywords: Hand-foot syndrome; Renal cell carcinoma; Sunitinib; Survival; Tyrosine kinase inhibitors.