Sunitinib
Sunitinib, sold under the brand name Sutent, is an anti-cancer medication. It is a small-molecule, multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor that was approved by the FDA for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumor in January 2006. Sunitinib was the first cancer drug simultaneously approved for two different indications.
As of August 2021, sunitinib is available as a generic medicine in the US.
Medical uses
Gastrointestinal stromal tumor
Like renal cell carcinoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumors do not generally respond to standard chemotherapy or radiation. Imatinib was the first chemotherapeutic agent proven effective for metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors and represented a significant development in the treatment of this rare but challenging disease. However, approximately 20% of patients do not respond to imatinib, and among those who do respond initially, 50% develop secondary imatinib resistance and disease progression within two years. Before sunitinib, patients had no therapeutic option once they became resistant to imatinib.Sunitinib offers patients with imatinib-resistant gastrointestinal stromal tumors a new treatment option to stop further disease progression and, in some cases, even reverse it. This was shown in a large phase III clinical trial in which patients who failed imatinib therapy were treated in a randomized and blinded fashion with either sunitinib or placebo.
The study was unblinded early—at the first interim analysis—due to the clearly emerging benefit of sunitinib. Patients receiving a placebo were offered to switch to sunitinib at that time. In the primary endpoint of the study, the median time to tumor progression was more than four-fold longer with sunitinib compared with placebo, based on an independent radiological assessment. The benefit of sunitinib remained statistically significant when stratified by many prespecified baseline variables.
Among the secondary endpoints, the difference in progression-free survival was similar to that in TTP. Seven percent of sunitinib patients had significant tumor shrinkage compared to 0% of patients receiving placebo. Another 58% of sunitinib patients had disease stabilization vs. 48% of patients receiving placebo. The median time to response with sunitinib was 10.4 weeks.
Sunitinib reduced the relative risk of disease progression or death by 67% and the risk of death alone by 51%. The difference in survival benefit may be diluted because placebo patients crossed over to sunitinib upon disease progression, and most of these patients subsequently responded to sunitinib.
Sunitinib was relatively well tolerated. About 83% of sunitinib patients experienced a treatment-related adverse event of any severity, as did 59% of patients who received placebo. Serious adverse events were reported in 20% of sunitinib patients and 5% of placebo patients. Adverse events were generally moderate and easily managed by dose reduction, dose interruption, or other treatment. Nine percent of sunitinib patients and 8% of placebo patients discontinued therapy due to an adverse event.
Fatigue is the adverse event most commonly associated with sunitinib therapy. In this study, 34% of sunitinib patients reported any fatigue, compared with 22% for placebo. The grade 3 fatigue incidence was similar between the two groups, and no grade 4 fatigue was reported.
Meningioma
Sunitinib is being studied for the treatment of meningioma, which is associated with neurofibromatosis.Aggressive fibromatosis
, sunitinib is being studied for aggressive fibromatosis.Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors
In November 2010, sunitinib was authorized in the European Union for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic, well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors with disease progression in adults. In May 2011, the USFDA approved sunitinib for treating people with 'progressive neuroendocrine cancerous tumors located in the pancreas that cannot be removed by surgery, or that has spread to other parts of the body.Renal cell carcinoma
Sunitinib is approved for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Renal cell carcinoma is generally resistant to chemotherapy or radiation. Before RTKs, metastatic disease could only be treated with the cytokines interferon alpha or interleukin-2. However, these agents demonstrated low rates of efficacy.In a phase III study, median progression-free survival was significantly longer in the sunitinib group than in the IFNα group, with a hazard ratio of 0.42. In the secondary endpoints, 28% had significant tumor shrinkage with sunitinib compared to 5% with IFNα. Patients receiving sunitinib had a better quality of life than IFNα. An update in 2008 showed that the primary endpoint of median progression-free survival remained superior with sunitinib: 11 months versus 5 months for IFNα, P<.000001. Objective response rate also remained superior: 39-47% for sunitinib versus 8-12% with IFNα, P<.000001.
Sunitinib treatment trended towards a slightly longer overall survival, although this was not statistically significant.
- Median overall survivability was 26 months with sunitinib vs 22 months for IFNα regardless of stratification.
- The first analysis includes 25 patients initially randomized to IFNα who crossed over to sunitinib therapy, which may have confounded the results; in an exploratory analysis that excluded these patients, the difference becomes more robust: 26 vs 20 months, P=.0081.
- Patients in the study were allowed to receive other therapies once they had progressed on their study treatment. For a "pure" analysis of the difference between the two agents, an analysis was done using only patients who did not receive any post-study treatment. This analysis demonstrated the greatest advantage for sunitinib: 28 months vs 14 months for IFNα, P=.0033. The number of patients in this analysis was small, which does not reflect actual clinical practice; therefore, it is not meaningful.
Mechanism of action
Sunitinib inhibits cellular signalling by targeting multiple receptor tyrosine kinases.These include all receptors for platelet-derived growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptors, which play a role in both tumor angiogenesis and tumor cell proliferation. The simultaneous inhibition of these targets therefore reduces tumor vascularization and triggers cancer cell apoptosis and thus results in tumor shrinkage.
Sunitinib also inhibits CD117, the receptor tyrosine kinase that drives the majority of gastrointestinal stromal cell tumors. It has been recommended as a second-line therapy for patients whose tumors develop mutations in c-KIT that make them resistant to imatinib, or who the cannot tolerate the drug.
In addition, sunitinib binds other receptors. These include:
The fact that sunitinib targets many different receptors, leads to many of its side effects such as the classic hand-foot syndrome, stomatitis, and other dermatologic toxicities.
History
The drug was discovered at SUGEN, a biotechnology company which pioneered protein kinase inhibitors. It was the third in a series of compounds including SU5416 and SU6668. The concept was of an ATP mimic that would compete with ATP for binding to the catalytic site of receptor tyrosine kinases. This concept led to the invention of many small-molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors, including Gleevec, Sutent, Tarceva and many others.Side effects
Sunitinib adverse events are considered somewhat manageable and the incidence of serious adverse events low.The most common adverse events associated with sunitinib therapy are fatigue, diarrhea, nausea, anorexia, hypertension, a yellow skin discoloration, hand-foot skin reaction, and stomatitis. In the placebo-controlled Phase III GIST study, adverse events which occurred more often with sunitinib than placebo included diarrhea, anorexia, skin discoloration, mucositis/stomatitis, asthenia, altered taste, and constipation.
Serious adverse events occur in ≤10% of patients and include hypertension, fatigue, asthenia, diarrhea, and chemotherapy-induced acral erythema. Lab abnormalities associated with sunitinib therapy include lipase, amylase, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and platelets. Hypothyroidism and reversible erythrocytosis have also been associated with sunitinib.
A study done at MD Anderson Cancer Center compared the outcomes of metastatic renal cell cancer patients who received sunitinib on the standard schedule with those who received sunitinib with more frequent and short drug holidays. It was seen that the overall survival, progression free survival and drug adherence were significantly higher in the patients who received Sunitinib on the alternative schedule. Patients also had a better tolerance and lower severity of adverse events which frequently lead to discontinuation of treatment of metastatic renal cell cancer patients.