Persistence and Compliance among United States Patients Receiving Pazopanib or Sunitinib as First-Line Therapy for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

Trial description: Randomized controlled clinical trials have demonstrated that pazopanib and sunitinib are safe and effective treatments when used as first‐line therapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). An understanding of the treatment and utilization patterns associated with these drugs outside of a controlled setting will be useful to decision makers. The study will assess and compare persistence and compliance among patients who receive pazopanib versus sunitinib as first‐line therapy for advanced RCC. Persistence with treatment is defined as the duration of time from therapy initiation to discontinuation. Compliance refers to the consistency and accuracy of the prescribed drug treatment regimen. The primary objectives of this study are to estimate and compare medication persistence and compliance among matched subjects who initiate first‐line therapy with pazopanib or sunitinib for the management of advanced RCC. The null hypotheses are that persistence with first‐line pazopanib will not differ from first-line sunitinib, and that compliance with first-line pazopanib will not differ from first-line sunitinib. The test hypotheses are that persistence with first‐line pazopanib will be greater than with first-line sunitinib and that compliance with first-line pazopanib will be greater than with first-line sunitinib.The secondary objectives are to describe and compare clinical outcomes, such as adverse events and mortality, and treatment patterns among advanced RCC patients who receive pazopanib versus sunitinib as first‐line therapy. The study is a comparative study employing a retrospective, cohort design.