Successful treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma with end stage renal disease on hemodialysis by sorafenib: a case report and literature review

Objective To investigate the safety and feasibility of sorafenib in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) undergoing hemodialysis.Methods A case of 65-year-old female patient on hemodialysis and receiving sorafenib treatment for mRCC was reported.Literatures were searched through PubMed for such mRCC with ESRD.Results The patient underwent a left radical nephrectomy because of clear cell RCC.Hemodialysis was introduced because of ESRD four months after the nephrectomy.Lung metastases were found one year after the operation.With the failure of immunotherapy,the patient received sorafenib 800 mg daily.Hemodialysis was carried out three times weekly.The initial sizes of right and left lung metastases were 2.7 cm × 2.4 cm and 2.6 cm× 2.0 cm respectively.The patient achieved stable disease six months later (to 2.4 cm × 1.4 cm and 2.0 cm × 1.8 cm respectively) and partial remission one year later (to 1.8 cm × 1.0 cm and fibrosis respectively).Currently the patient has been under sorafenib treatment for 52 months.The pulmonary lesions were nearly replaced by fibrosis and calcification.Totally six case reports were found through PubMed including nine patients with ESRD and mRCC.The best objective response was partial response in three cases,stable disease in four cases and unknown in the other two cases.Sorafenib was generally well tolerated.Conclusion Treatment of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma undergoing hemodialysis with sorafenib appears to be feasible. Key words: Sorafenib; Hemodialysis; cell Carcinoma, renal