Background: This retrospective register study assessed overall survival (OS) and influential factors on OS in Swedish renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients.
Methods: Using three merged national health registers, Cox proportional-hazards analysis was conducted and, in three models, it was used to assess the impact of cytokine (interferon-α and tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI; sunitinib or sorafenib) treatment on OS in metastatic (m)RCC.
Results: From 2000 to 2008, 8009 patients were diagnosed with RCC and 2753 with mRCC (2002-2008). Median OS in RCC patients diagnosed from 2006 to 2008 compared with 2000-2005 was not reached vs 47.9 months (P< 0.001), and in mRCC patients diagnosed from 2006 to 2008 compared with 2002-2005, was 12.4 vs 9.6 months, respectively (P=0.004). Factors associated with significantly improved OS in RCC were female gender, lower age, and previous nephrectomy, and, in mRCC female gender, previous nephrectomy, and any TKI prescription (Model 1: median-adjusted OS, 19.4 months (TKI patients) vs 9.7 months (non-TKI patients); hazard ratio, 0.621; P< 0.001).
Conclusion: OS was improved in Swedish patients diagnosed with RCC and mRCC in the period 2006-2008 compared with 2000-2005 (RCC) and 2002-2005 (mRCC). Although multifactorial in origin, results suggest that increased nephrectomy rates and the use of TKIs contributed to the improvement seen in mRCC patients.
Written by:
Wahlgren T, Harmenberg U, Sandström P, Lundstam S, Kowalski J, Jakobsson M, Sandin R, Ljungberg B. Are you the author?
Pfizer AB, Vetenskapsvägen 10, Sollentuna 191 90, Sweden.
Reference: Br J Cancer. 2013 Apr 16;108(7):1541-9.
doi: 10.1038/bjc.2013.119
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23531701
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