Optimizing the Use of Sunitinib in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: An Update From Clinical Practice

ABSTRACT

Sunitinib is a reference standard of care for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). While the tolerability of sunitinib is consistent across clinical studies, the impact of tolerability on clinical benefit necessitates effective therapy management, focusing on optimization of dosing, treatment duration, and management of adverse events. Managing individual tolerability concerns in clinical practice should include patient education and practical management strategies. We review the sunitinib tolerability profile in mRCC and describe practical strategies to manage adverse events in order to maximize clinical benefit. These strategies may allow long-term sunitinib treatment, thereby optimizing the available clinical efficacy.

Keywords: :

• Drug therapy management
• renal cell carcinoma
• side effects
• sunitinib malate

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This manuscript was developed by the authors following an Advisory Group meeting, sponsored by Pfizer Inc. Editorial assistance was provided by Minal Kotecha at ACUMED® (Tytherington, UK) and funded by Pfizer, Inc.

Declaration of interest Dirk Arnold: member of the Pfizer German and European advisory boards and the German Roche advisory board.

A Ravaud: member of the Global, European and/or French advisory boards of Pfizer, Bayer, GSK, Roche, and Wyeth. Member of RCC clinical trial steering committees for Pfizer and Novartis. Principal investigator for the S-TRAC trial sponsored by Pfizer.

Manuela Schmidinger: member of the Pfizer, Bayer Schering, Roche and Wyeth European advisory boards.

Cezary Szczylik: no conflicts of interest to declare.

John Wagstaff: member of the Pfizer European and UK advisory boards.