EVEROLIMUS IN RENAL CELL CARCINOMA

Everolimus (also known as RAD-001; Afinitor (R)) is on orally active inhibitor of the intracellular protein kinase mammalian target of rapamycin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency recently approved everolimus for the treatment of advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) on the basis of the results of a randomized phase Ill clinical trial. In the trial, 10 mg doily everolimus was effective and well tolerated by patients with advanced RCC, whose disease had progressed while under the treatment with sunitinib and/or sorafenib. Everolimus treatment led to 36% of 6-month progression-free survival (PFS) rate and 31% of 3-month PFS rate. Most of the adverse events were mild to moderate (grade 1-2) in severity. The most frequent grade 3-4 adverse events were stomatitis, fatigue, pneumonitis and infections. Clinical trials on everolimus in combination with sunitinib, sorafenib, imatinib and vatalanib for the treatment of RCC are ongoing.