Background: In the phase 3 METEOR trial (NCT01865747), cabozantinib significantly improved progression-free survival, overall survival, and objective response rate compared with everolimus in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after prior antiangiogenic therapy. A statistically significant improvement in overall survival was observed at a second interim analysis with 320 recorded deaths.
Methods: 658 patients with advanced RCC who had received at least one prior VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor were randomised 1:1 to cabozantinib (60 mg daily) or everolimus (10 mg daily). Survival follow-up continued to reach the 408 deaths that were pre-specified for the final analysis.
Results: With 430 deaths (198 for cabozantinib and 232 for everolimus), median overall survival was 21.4 months with cabozantinib and 17.1 months with everolimus (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.58-0.85; P = 0.0002). Safety profiles of cabozantinib and everolimus were consistent with those reported previously.
Conclusions: Cabozantinib significantly improved overall survival compared with everolimus in previously treated patients with advanced RCC with consistent results after long-term follow-up.