Patients with incurable kidney cancer can safely take ‘treatment holidays’ and ditch their powerful but debilitating medication for up to a year, a study has found.
More than 15,000 Britons take sunitinib or pazopanib, highly effective daily pills that stop the spread of advanced kidney cancer but which also cause a swathe of side effects that get worse over time, including liver damage, blistering and severe fatigue.
Now a ten-year trial of 900 people has concluded that patients can come off the treatment for between six and 12 months without impacting their life expectancy.
More than 15,000 Britons take sunitinib or pazopanib, highly effective daily pills that stop the spread of advanced kidney cancer but which also cause a swathe of side effects that get worse over time
Researchers at the universities of Sheffield and Leeds found that the ‘treatment holidays’ allowed patients to regain their health and believe they may even slow the progression of the cancer, picture posed by models
Researchers at the universities of Sheffield and Leeds found that the ‘treatment holidays’ allowed patients to regain their health and believe they may even slow the progression of the cancer.
Professor Janet Brown, an oncologist and chief investigator on the trial, said: ‘Patients on the trial began to really look forward to these breaks in treatment. Some participants timed their breaks so that they could go on holiday or enjoy Christmas with their loved ones, all without having to deal with the side effects which come with taking these drugs.
‘Then, some time later, they would start the treatment again and there would be no negative impact.’
Kidney cancer hits more than 13,000 Britons every year. If caught early it can be cured, usually by surgery to remove the tumour, and 50 per cent of patients survive longer than ten years after diagnosis. But if it spreads into other parts of the body – what is known as advanced kidney cancer – it is deemed virtually uncurable and most patients will live no longer than three
