Sunitinib (SU11248) inhibits growth of human ovarian cancer in xenografted mice

Treatment of ovarian cancer is still challenging especially in recurrent platinum refractory cases. Sunitinib is a multi tyrosine kinase inhibitor targeting receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor and platelet-derived growth factor which play a role in tumor angiogenesis. It has been approved for the treatment of recurrent gastro intestinal stroma tumors and metastatic renal cancer.In this study, sunitinib was tested for its effectiveness as a single agent in an ovarian cancer xenograft mouse model. Skov3 cells stably expressing firefly luciferase were injected into SCID beige mice. Mice received either 40 mg/kg bodyweight sunitinib or vehicle control. Tumor growth was monitored longitudinally by luciferase signal.Sunitinib significantly reduced tumor growth (p=0.0052) and peritoneal metastases, and was associated with a significantly reduced microvessel density count (p0.001).These results suggest that clinical trials are warranted for the evaluation of sunitinib for treatment of patients with recurrent or advanced ovarian cancer.