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The following video interview with Dr Elizabeth Plimack from the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, USA discusses the results from a study that assessed the outcome of metastasectomy in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC).
The study looked at patients with slow growing disease, and maybe one metastasis that was removed with surgery. Typically, metastasectomy is performed to delay the use of systemic therapy and its associated toxicities; however, in this study patients underwent metastasectomy and were then treated with pazopanib, a VEGF tyrosine kinase inhibitor to see if this treatment prolonged recurrence-free survival.
Unfortunately, the study was negative, the procedure (metastasectomy followed by pazopanib) did not prolong survival and there was a trend towards worse overall survival. There was no benefit to recurrence-free survival at 3 years post-surgery. Also, patients were exposed to the toxicities of pazopanib treatment after metastasectomy.