Dr. Gong on Adverse Events of TKI VEGF-Directed Therapy in RCC

Jun Gong, MD, fellow, City of Hope, discusses adverse events (AEs) associated with TKI/VEGF-directed therapy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

In a study evaluating latency of potential treatment-related AEs, toxicities reported after the first drug claim up until the last drug claim were tracked. With a population of a little over 1000 and a median age of 62, the most common AEs were fatigue, hypertension, diarrhea and thyroid dysfunction. The median time of onset reported by patients was beyond 100 days.

Some side effects are more easily reportable, such as nausea or vomiting, but something that is determined by a blood test might not show symptoms. The number of patients who don’t report symptoms or decide to wait them out was much higher than researchers anticipated.

The next steps, says Gong, is telling the scientific community that there needs to be more investigation into side effects, as many phase II and III RCC studies do not report time of onset toxicities.