Treatment and overall survival in renal cell carcinoma: a Swedish population-based study (2000–2008)

Background: This retrospective register study assessed overall survival (OS) and influential factors on OS in Swedish renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients. Methods: Using three merged national health registers, Cox proportional-hazards analysis was conducted and, in three models, it was used to assess the impact of cytokine (interferon- α and tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI; sunitinib or sorafenib) treatment on OS in metastatic (m)RCC. Results: From 2000 to 2008, 8009 patients were diagnosed with RCC and 2753 with mRCC (2002–2008). Median OS in RCC patients diagnosed from 2006 to 2008 compared with 2000–2005 was not reached vs 47.9 months ( P