Assessment of efficacy, safety and quality of life of 55 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with temsirolimus: a single-center experience in Japan

Background To evaluate experience of the use of temsirolimus for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) in a single center in Japan. Methods This study included 55 consecutive patients with mRCC who received temsirolimus in a routine clinical setting, and retrospectively reviewed the comprehensive outcomes of these patients. Results Of the 55 patients, 20 had a Karnofsky performance status of ≤80, and 5, 41 and 9 were classified into favorable, intermediate and poor risk groups, respectively, according to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center model. Initially, 25 mg of temsirolimus was applied weekly; however, dose modification was required in 19 patients, resulting in a relative dose intensity of 90.5 % throughout this series. As the best responses to temsirolimus, 4, 44 and 7 were judged to have a partial response, stable disease and progressive disease, respectively. The median progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of these patients following the introduction of temsirolimus was 7.0 and 25.0 months, respectively. Of several factors examined, only the pretreatment C-reactive protein level was shown to be independently associated with both PFS and OS. The common adverse events related to temsirolimus corresponding to ≥grade 3 were anemia in 4, thrombocytopenia in 3, stomatitis in 3 and hyperglycemia in 3. Quality of life analysis using 36-Item Short Form showed that there were no significant differences in any scale scores between surveys performed before and 3 months after the introduction of temsirolimus. Conclusions Temsirolimus was well tolerated and facilitated comparatively favorable cancer control in Japanese patients with mRCC.