The adverse effects of sorafenib in patients with advanced cancers

Abstract

Sorafenib is the first multi-kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular cancer (HCC) and metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) and is increasingly being used to treat patients with well-differentiated radioiodine-resistant thyroid cancer (DTC). Sorafenib demonstrates targeted activity on several families of receptor and non-receptor tyrosine kinases that are involved in angiogenesis, tumour growth and metastatic progression of cancer. Sorafenib treatment results in long-term efficacy and low incidence of life-threatening toxicities. Although sorafenib has demonstrated many benefits in patients, the adverse effects cannot be ignored. The most common treatment-related toxicities include diarrhoea, fatigue, hand-foot skin reaction and hypertension. Most of these toxicities are considered mild to moderate and manageable to varying degrees; however, cardiovascular events might lead to death. In this MiniReview, we summarize the adverse effects of sorafenib that commonly occur in patients with advanced cancers.