New drug halts the progress of kidney cancer

Usual treatment for kidney cancer of a metastatic nature has been based solely on immunotherapy. But treatment with immunotherapy has not shown clearly positive results in many patients.

The work was published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine and involved medical co-researchers from the Oncology Department of the University Hospital of Navarra, in collaboration with the Clinical Trials Area of the same Department. In phase III of the research, sunitinib, marketed as Sutent by Pfizer, was compared with interferon (a type of immunotherapy) in 750 patients with metastatic kidney cancer. Sunitinib was shown to be more efficient in halting the progress of the disease.

Given the short period of follow-up in the research, the effect of the treatment on survival rates could not be corroborated. Although the treatment is well tolerated, certain side effects can occur such as hypothyroidism, high blood pressure and fatigue.

According to the researchers, sunitinib is one of the few drugs that provide clear improvements in this type of cancer. The mechanism of functioning of sunitinib is in blocking the generation of new blood vessels. Tumors, in order to grow, need to develop blood vessels and this pharmaceutical drug impedes their growth, blocking a factor known as VEGF, and other similar ones, which stimulate vascular growth.