Lenvatinib for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 2–3% of all solid tumors. Expression of the receptor for the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is one of the most common features of RCC.

Areas covered: Lenvatinib is a novel multi-kinase inhibitor that has been studied in several solid tumors. It has shown promising results in the treatment of RCC, especially when combined with everolimus, In this review, we summarize the available data of lenvatinib for the treatment of advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Expert opinion: Lenvatinib in combination with everolimus has provided encouraging results in both clinical and laboratory investigations showing that blocking angiogenesis and the mTOR signalling pathway could be a remarkable approach for treating RCC. As an additive to this type of approach it would be interesting in future clinical settings testing also the combination of lenvatinib and everolimus with immune-therapy.

KEYWORDS:

• Renal cell carcinoma
• Lenvatinib
• VEGFR1–3
• RET
• FGFR1–4
• PDGFRα
• c-KIT

Article Highlights

• Lenvatinib is a multikinase inhibitor that has been studied in several solid tumor types.

• Lenvatinib in combination with everolimus has provided encouraging results in RCC.

• The combination of lenvatinib and everolimus with immune-therapy could be also an interesting approach.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.