Pancreatic metastases (PM) are rare in renal cell carcinoma. It has been suggested that patients with metastases to the pancreas have a more favorable prognosis, but little is known about the long-term outcomes with systemic therapy. We sought to understand the outcomes of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma with PM treated with systemic therapy.

We conducted a pooled analysis of 4736 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated on phase II/III clinical trials. Systemic therapies included anti-vascular endothelial growth factor targeted therapy, mammalian target of rapamycin-targeted therapy, and cytokine therapy.

The primary end point was overall survival (OS) in patients with versus without PM. Statistical analyses were performed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression. Among 4736 patients, 235 (5.0%) were identified to have baseline PM at therapy initiation. The median OS in patients with PM was significantly prolonged with OS of 41.7 months versus 19.0 months (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.52; P < .0001). Similarly, progression-free survival was significantly prolonged in patients with PM (10.9 vs. 6.9 months; adjusted hazard ratio, 0.72; P = .004). The effect of PM on OS and progression-free survival was independent of other sites of metastasis or International mRCC Database Consortium risk group.

The presence of PM in RCC is an independent positive predictor for survival and improved response to systemic therapy. These findings suggest RCC with PM is associated with favorable outcomes and further work to understand the underlying disease biology of these patients is warranted.