Pazopanib (Votrient) Approved By The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) For Treatment Of Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is recommending Pazopanib (Votrient) as a first-line treatment option for people with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who have not previously received cytokine therapy and who are of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status 0-1, on the basis that GSK provided that an agreed patient access scheme agreed. The patient access scheme will offer straight discount of 12.5% (which will bring the price in par with Sunitinib) and makes provision for a possible partial rebate to the NHS in the future. The rebate  is conditional upon the outcome of a head-to-head trial with current standard of care treatment sunitinib (Sutent).
The study, COMPARZ, which started in 2008 will end in May 2011 and the results will be out in Mid 2012.
Usually NICE recommendations are accepted by UK National Health Service and this time NICE has recommended that NHS takes the deal.

Votrient is a type of medicine called a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and it has been shown to effectively slow down the progression of advanced RCC whilst maintaining QoL compared with placebo; a significant consideration for patients at an advanced stage of disease.2,3 Votrient has an acceptable and manageable toxicity profile. The most frequent adverse events related to Votrient treatment were diarrhoea, hair colour change, hypertension, nausea, anorexia and increased liver enzymes.

Advanced RCC is an aggressive form of kidney cancer with a poor prognosis, due in part to its resistance to chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy. Over 8,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year and around one third show signs of advanced RCC at the time of diagnosis.7-9 The introduction of targeted cancer therapies has transformed the management of advanced RCC. However, despite improvements in efficacy, side effects observed with available treatments to date can affect patients’ quality of life and their ability to carry out normal daily activities.12-17 This was acknowledged by the NICE Appraisal Committee in their evaluation of evidence from the patient experts and clinicians. With only one targeted treatment option (sunitinib) recommended by NICE as a first-line treatment until now,18 the NICE recommendation of Votrient will offer patients and clinicians a choice of effective treatment options with different side-effect profiles.

NICE statement