Renal cell carcinoma outcomes improved in young, old patients treated with sorafenib

Recent research suggests sorafenib treatment may improve outcomes among patients with renal cell carcinoma, regardless of age.

Researchers from various sites in the United States and Europe studied the safety and efficacy of sorafenib treatment among a group of patients aged 70 years or older (n=115) and a group of patients aged younger than 70 years (n=787) with renal cell carcinoma. The study was a retrospective subgroup analysis of data from the phase-3, randomized Treatment Approach in Renal Cancer Global Evaluation Trial.

Results indicated median progression-free survival was similar among both younger (23.9 weeks; HR=0.55) and older patients (26.3 weeks; HR=0.43) treated with sorafenib. Progression-free survival in patients treated with sorafenib was approximately double that of patients given placebo, according to the researchers.

Similarities were also found for clinical benefit rates among young and old patients in the treatment group (83.5% and 84.3%) compared with patients in the placebo group (53.8% for younger patients and 62.2% for older patients).

According to the researchers, side effects were expected, mild and medically manageable; no notable differences were found in the frequency or severity of sorafenib-related toxicity among young or old patients. – by Jennifer Southall

J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008;100:1454-1463.

I believe the data are extremely interesting and deserve to be known. The results are important, as they certainly demonstrate that age was not associated with excess toxicity. A minor thing, but I would not say that people think that older adults have reduced tolerance to chemotherapy because they are underrepresented in clinical trials. The main reason is a misconception of aging as frailty.

– Lodovico Balducci, MD

Division Chief, Senior Adult Oncology
H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, Tampa, Fla.