Introduction: Pazopanib is one of the recently introduced first-line therapeutic options in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). There is no published literature from India on the use of pazopanib in mRCC.
Materials and methods: We report the efficacy and toxicity analysis of first-line pazopanib therapy administered for patients with mRCC at our institute. It is a retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained continuous data.
Results: Between March 2013 and December 2015, 28 patients have been treated with pazopanib. The median age was 56.5 years with 23 males and five females. Sixty-eight percent patients had clear-cell histology. The most common site of metastasis was lung (75%), followed by bone (36%), liver (25%), and brain (14%) with 43% having more than one metastatic site. Partial response, stable disease, and progression were observed in 3 (11%), 10 (36%), and 4 (14%) cases, respectively, and the response was not evaluable in 11 patients. The median follow-up duration was 11.8 months, and progression-free survival was 5.9 months. Most of the toxicities were Grade I-II except in three patients who experienced Grade III hand-foot syndrome (HFS) and one patient who had Grade III anemia. Common side effects were hypertension, HFS, fatigue, transaminitis, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, and proteinuria which were quite manageable. No patient required treatment discontinuation due to toxicity.
Conclusion: Based on this initial experience at our center, pazopanib seems a feasible first-line treatment for mRCC due to its well-tolerable toxicity profile. However, larger data are required to confirm its efficacy in Indian patients.