PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - TETSUO FUJITA
AU  - YOJI WAKATABE
AU  - KAZUMASA MATSUMOTO
AU  - KEN-ICHI TABATA
AU  - KAZUNARI YOSHIDA
AU  - MASATSUGU IWAMURA
TI  - Leukopenia as a Biomarker of Sunitinib Outcome in Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma
DP  - 2014 Jul 01
TA  - Anticancer Research
PG  - 3781--3787
VI  - 34
IP  - 7
4099  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/7/3781.short
4100  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/7/3781.full
SO  - Anticancer Res2014 Jul 01; 34
AB  - Background: Sunitinib is known to cause a variety of adverse events. The aim of the present study was to investigate the prognostic significance of leukopenia for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) treated with sunitinib. Patients and Methods: Between December 2008 and January 2012, 44 consecutive patients with advanced RCC were treated with sunitinib. Adverse events that occurred during the study were identified. Cox proportional hazards regression analysis estimated the relative importance of the predictive factors for progression-free survival (PFS). Results: On multivariate analysis, leukopenia was a significant predictor of PFS (p=0.0185). The cohort with leukopenia comprised of 36 patients (81.8%) and the cohort without leukopenia of 8 patients (18.2%). Patients with leukopenia had a significantly higher response rate (p=0.0062) and significantly longer PFS (p<0.0001) compared to patients without leukopenia. Conclusion: Leukopenia is an independent, significant prognostic indicator for patients with advanced RCC treated with sunitinib.