OBJECTIVES : To characterize treatment patterns and survival outcomes in patients with advanced renal cell cancer (aRCC) in Denmark.

METHODS : This cohort study used information from Danish population-based and medical registries. Patients with initial diagnosis of stage III or IV RCC and registered in the Danish Cancer Registry from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2017, were included, with follow-up through December 31, 2018. Summary and descriptive statistics were calculated for categorical and continuous variables as appropriate. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate median overall survival (OS).

RESULTS : A total of 1,261 patients were included. Median age was 67.1 years (IQR, 59.3-73.7), 723 patients (57.3%) were aged ≥65 years, 850 (67.4%) were men, and 386 (30.6%) had a baseline Charlson Comorbidity Index score ≥3. 525 patients (41.6%) had stage III disease, 649 (51.5%) had stage IV, and 87 (6.9%) had undefined stage III/IV. Median follow-up was 22.1 months (IQR, 9.6-39.7). Median OS from diagnosis was 35.1 months (95% CI, 30.9-42.2) for the overall population but shorter for patients with stage IV disease (13.6 months; 95% CI, 11.8-16.2). 848 patients (67.2%) underwent ≥1 therapeutic surgical procedure. 350 (27.8%) received radiation therapy, and 625 (49.6%) initiated systemic anticancer therapy during follow-up. Of the patients getting any systemic anticancer therapy, 552 (88.3%) got tyrosine kinase inhibitors at least once and 90 (14.4%) got PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors at least once.

CONCLUSIONS : This observational cohort study describes the characteristics and treatment patterns of an unselected, national cohort with aRCC in a real-world setting in Denmark. These data can serve as a useful benchmark for RCC treatment in an era before the introduction of immunotherapy combinations in routine clinical practice.