Case report of a renal cell carcinoma patient with acute pancreatitis under both sunitinib and axitinib treatment

Abstract

Sunitinib and axitinib are oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) that is commonly used in the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) as it has been shown to improve the progression-free survival of patients compared with sorafenib. Hypertension, palmar-plantar erythrodysesthesia, diarrhea, decreased appetite, nausea, and fatigue are common adverse events associated with them. We declared the first case report of a RCC patient with acute pancreatitis both under sunitinib and axitinib treatment. A 63-year-old male RCC patient who had been previously treated with interferon alfa 2b, sunitinib, everolimus and axitinib was hospitalized for acute pancreatitis four months after the onset of sunitinib therapy and five months after the onset of axitinib treatment. Symptoms and levels of serum lipase were normalized within one week after drug was withheld. Acute pancreatitis is a rare side effect of TKI and because of this, in patients under TKI treatment abdominal pain should be considered as a possible symptom of acute pancreatitis.

Keywords

• Sunitinib
• Axitinib
• Renal cell carcinoma
• Pancreatitis
• Side effects