Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 2007 May 31;356(22):2271-81.
doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa066838.

Temsirolimus, interferon alfa, or both for advanced renal-cell carcinoma

Gary Hudes  1 , Michael Carducci, Piotr Tomczak, Janice Dutcher, Robert Figlin, Anil Kapoor, Elzbieta Staroslawska, Jeffrey Sosman, David McDermott, István Bodrogi, Zoran Kovacevic, Vladimir Lesovoy, Ingo G H Schmidt-Wolf, Olga Barbarash, Erhan Gokmen, Timothy O'Toole, Stephanie Lustgarten, Laurence Moore, Robert J Motzer; Global ARCC Trial
Affiliations
Free article
Clinical Trial

Temsirolimus, interferon alfa, or both for advanced renal-cell carcinoma

Gary Hudes et al. N Engl J Med. .
Free article

Abstract

Background: Interferon alfa is widely used for metastatic renal-cell carcinoma but has limited efficacy and tolerability. Temsirolimus, a specific inhibitor of the mammalian _target of rapamycin kinase, may benefit patients with this disease.

Methods: In this multicenter, phase 3 trial, we randomly assigned 626 patients with previously untreated, poor-prognosis metastatic renal-cell carcinoma to receive 25 mg of intravenous temsirolimus weekly, 3 million U of interferon alfa (with an increase to 18 million U) subcutaneously three times weekly, or combination therapy with 15 mg of temsirolimus weekly plus 6 million U of interferon alfa three times weekly. The primary end point was overall survival in comparisons of the temsirolimus group and the combination-therapy group with the interferon group.

Results: Patients who received temsirolimus alone had longer overall survival (hazard ratio for death, 0.73; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58 to 0.92; P=0.008) and progression-free survival (P<0.001) than did patients who received interferon alone. Overall survival in the combination-therapy group did not differ significantly from that in the interferon group (hazard ratio, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.76 to 1.20; P=0.70). Median overall survival times in the interferon group, the temsirolimus group, and the combination-therapy group were 7.3, 10.9, and 8.4 months, respectively. Rash, peripheral edema, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia were more common in the temsirolimus group, whereas asthenia was more common in the interferon group. There were fewer patients with serious adverse events in the temsirolimus group than in the interferon group (P=0.02).

Conclusions: As compared with interferon alfa, temsirolimus improved overall survival among patients with metastatic renal-cell carcinoma and a poor prognosis. The addition of temsirolimus to interferon did not improve survival. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00065468 [ClinicalTrials.gov].).

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms

Associated data

  NODES
Association 1
twitter 2