Sunitinib Versus Pazopanib as Initial Therapy for Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma of Intermediate and Poor-Risk Characteristics: Real-World, a Single-Center

Background: Sunitinib and pazopanib are tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) used as first-line therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). In this study, our objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of sunitinib or pazopanib in patients with intermediate or poor risk metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Methods: A total of 60 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma were retrospectively evaluated between January 2014 and December 2020. Survival analyzes were performed with the Kaplan-Meier and log-rank tests. Results: Forty-six (76.7%) patients were male. Of the patients who received sunitinib, 22 patients (57.9%) were in the intermediate risk group, while 16 patients (42.1%) were in the poor risk group. Among patients receiving pazopanib, 14 patients (63.6%) were in the intermediate-risk group, while 8 patients (36.4%) were in the poor-risk group. There were no significant difference in the intermediate risk group of patients in terms of median progression-free survival between sunitinib and pazopanib (p=0.742). No significant differences were found in terms of progression-free survival in the high-risk group of patients (p=0.254). There were no significant differences in overall survival in the intermediate-risk group of patients receiving sunitinib or pazopanib (p = 0.377). There were no significant differences in terms of overall survival in the high-risk patient group receiving sunitinib or pazopanib (p = 0.3777). Conclusions: There were no significant difference in terms of progression-free survival and overall survival between the intermediate and poor-risk patient groups receiving pazopanib or sunitinib.