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NCCN updates renal cell carcinoma guidelines
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network has updated its Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Kidney Cancer to include pazopanib as a therapy option for patients with advanced kidney cancer.
The drug was approved by the FDA to treat advanced renal cell carcinoma in October. The approval was based on data from a phase-3, open-label, multicenter clinical trial in patients with advanced clear cell renal carcinoma. Patients treated with the drug had improved rates of PFS compared with patients who were not assigned the therapy.
Based on this data, the NCCN Guidelines Panel for Kidney Cancer has added pazopanib (Votrient, GlaxoSmithKline) as a first-line therapy option for patients with predominant clear cell histology and those with non-clear cell histology. Pazopanib has been incorporated into the options for subsequent therapy for those with predominant clear cell histology following cytokine therapy, and following other tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
Pazopanib is among a growing list of therapies recently approved by the FDA for kidney cancer. In April, the agency approved everolimus (Afinitor, Novartis), which was subsequently added to the NCCN Guidelines as a recommended treatment option.
