Sunitinib fosters marked increase in overall survival in kidney cancer

Patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma who were treated with sunitinib malate (Sutent) experienced a median overall survival of more than two years, compared with patients who took interferon-alpha, according to Pfizer.

Results from the phase III trial were published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Lead investigator Robert Motzer, MD, and colleagues reported that among 750 patients treated, the overall survival in the sunitinib arm was 26.4 vs 21.8 months in patients who received interferon-alpha (J Clin Oncol online, June 1, 2009).

Patients on sunitinib also had lower severity of disease-related symptoms such as breathlessness and fever, according to a secondary endpoint analysis presented at ASCO 2009 (abstract 6529)