Survival in Patients With Primary Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Treated With Sunitinib With or Without Previous Cytoreductive Nephrectomy: Results From a Population-based Registry

Item does not contain fulltextOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) on overall survival (OS) in primary metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients treated with first-line sunitinib. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with primary mRCC treated with first-line sunitinib were selected from a Dutch population-based registry. A propensity score was calculated reflecting the probability of a patient undergoing CN prior to sunitinib using a set of known covariates, such as the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and International mRCC Database Consortium risk factors. After propensity score matching, differences in OS were analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and a multivariable Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the effect of CN on OS. RESULTS: A total of 227 patients met the selection criteria; 74 patients (33%) underwent CN prior to sunitinib. In the matched population, the median OS of patients who underwent CN was 17.9 months compared to 8.8 months for patients treated with sunitinib only. Multivariable analysis showed that CN was an independent predictor of OS (hazard ratio 0.61, 95% confidence interval: 0.41-0.92). A subgroup analysis of patients with a time to targeted therapy of