Prognostic and predictive value of hematologic parameters in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: second line sunitinib treatment following IFN-alpha.

Background: Long-term survival is a problem with locally advanced and metastatic renal cell carcinomas. Sunitinib malate is an oral multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor, but data on sunitinib use as a second line treatment in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) are limited. Prognostic and predictive value of peripheral blood markers has been shown for many cancers.