Axitinib beyond first-line therapy of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: Real World Data from the STAR-TOR registry

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness and safety profile of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor Axitinib for patients with advanced or metastatic renal cell carcinoma (a/mRCC) in a real-world setting. Methods: Adult patients from the German non-interventional post-approval multicenter STAR-TOR registry with a/mRCC (NCT00700258) were included if treated with Axitinib in second line or beyond. Overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and adverse events were evaluated across subgroups using descriptive statistics and survival analyses. Results: Between November 2012 and December 2020, 75 study sites recruited 210 patients treated with Axitinib (69,6% male; median age 69 years; median Karnofsky Index 80%). Clear cell RCC was the most frequent histological subtype (81.0%). Axitinib was administered as second-line in 51.4%, third-line in 24.8%, and fourth-line treatment and beyond in 23.8% of the patients, respectively. MSKCC score was 15.0% favorable, 33.6% intermediate, and 51.3% poor risk. Median PFS was 5.6 months, and median OS 18.3 months. Patients with lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels >  300U/l had a nominally significantly shorter OS than patients with LDH≤300U/l (8.2 vs. 19.0 months, p = 0.008). Drug related adverse and serious adverse events were reported in 56.7% and 17.6% of the patients, respectively (most common adverse event: gastrointestinal disorders; 37.6%). Conclusions: This real-world study confirms the clinical relevance of Axitinib in the second-line and beyond setting for a/mRCC with OS and PFS reported in concordance with pivotal trials, while demonstrating a favorable safety profile. A high LDH serum level could be a negative predictive marker for Axitinib effectiveness, which can aid in clinical decision making.