MicroRNA expression in peripheral blood predicts poor and prolonged response to sunitinib.

Peripheral blood samples were taken before initiation of therapy and 2 weeks later from patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma treated with sunitinib in first line. MicroRNA expression in peripheral blood was assessed using microarrays and several models predicting poor response and prolonged response to sunitinib were constructed and evaluated. Peripheral blood samples obtained before initiation of therapy with sunitinib and 14 days later were used to assess expression values of miRNAs.