Cardiovascular toxicity follwing sunitinib therapy in metastatic renal cell cancer: A multicenter analysis

Abstract

e16051 Background: Recent data have shown that cardiotoxicity represents a potentially important side-effect in patients treated with sunitinib. We reviewed cardiac adverse events in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who underwent treatment with this agent. Methods: The medical records of 175 patients with metastatic RCC treated with sunitinib at eight Italian Institutions were retrospectively reviewed. Alterations in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and blood pressure were evaluated. Patients with pre-existing cardiac risk factors were specifically scrutinized for increased expression of cardiac changes. Results: Grade 3 hypertension was seen in 17 patients (9.7%); in twelve of these 17, hypertension developed after receiving the third sunitinib cycle. Among these 17 patients, 12 (70.6%) also experienced left-ventricular systolic (LVEF) dysfunction; in all, 33 of the 175 patients (18.9%) developed some degree of cardiac abnormality, of which 12 were of classified as grade 3 LVEF dysfunction and/or congestive heart failure (CHF) (6.9%). A significant univariate association for predictors of CHF were history of hypertension (p=0.008), history of coronary heart disease (p=0.0005) and prior treatment with an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE) (p= 0.04). Multivariate analysis suggested that a history of coronary artery disease (OR 18, 95% CI, 4–160 p 0.005) and hypertension (OR 3, 95% CI, 1.5–80 p 0.04) were the only significant independent predictors of CHF. Conclusions: Patients undergoing sunitinib, especially those with a previous history of hypertension and coronary heart disease, are at increased risk for cardiovascular events and should be monitored for exacerbations of their hypertension and for evidence of LVEF dysfunction during treatment. [Table: see text]