Abstract
The oral vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) sunitinib is a standard first-line therapy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).1 Survival outcomes for patients with mRCC treated with sunitinib vary between prognostic risk groups, defined by the International mRCC Database Consortium (IMDC) criteria.2,3 For example, median progression-free survival (PFS) is expected to be lower in patients with poor or intermediate-risk characteristics compared with the overall patient population, with one study reporting PFS of 5.6 months following first-line targeted therapy in patients with poor or immediate-risk characteristics compared with 7.2 months for the overall population.4 Furthermore, the presence of bone metastases is also associated with less favourable outcomes in patients with mRCC.5