Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer, and accounts for approximately 3% of all malignancies. Metastatic RCC (mRCC) is not sensitive to traditional radiotherapy and chemotherapy, therefore targeted therapy has become an important treatment option. In this study, the second-line targeted drug everolimus (Afinitor), a mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor, was investigated for its clinical efficacy and adverse events in mRCC after failure of first-line targeted therapy, such as sorafenib, sunitinib or pazopanib.
Methods: A total of 21 patients with mRCC who had been treated with surgery or other therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) were given oral everolimus (10 mg/day) until disease progression. Clinical efficacy was evaluated using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) 2 months after therapy, including complete response (CR), partial response (PR), stable disease (SD), and progressive disease (PD). The adverse events were observed, and timely treatment was provided.
Results: Everolimus extended progression-free survival (PFS) in mRCC patients from 4 to 8 months (median 6.3 months). There were 3 patients with PR, 12 with SD, and 6 with PD, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 15/21 (71.4%). Common adverse events included stomatitis, rash, and pneumonitis.
Conclusions: This study provides further support that everolimus is still an important option in mRCC treatment after failure of first-line targeted therapy. However, clinical studies are still needed to further improve its therapeutic efficacy.
Keywords: Everolimus; mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR); metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC); targeted therapy.