The trial team concluded that pazopanib doesn’t stop renal cell cancer from coming back after surgery.
This was a phase 3 trial. 1538 people who had surgery to remove renal cell cancer took part.
The trial was a randomised trial. People were put into 1 of the following treatment groups by computer:
• 769 people had pazopanib
• 769 people had a dummy drug
Neither they nor their doctor could choose which group they were in. And neither they nor their doctor knew which group they were in.

Everyone had pazopanib or a dummy drug once a day, for 1 year. Doctors reduced the dose of pazopanib during the trial. This was because of the side effects. So, 198 people had a high dose of pazopanib and 571 people had a low dose.
The research team looked at how well pazopanib worked. To do this they looked at the number of people who had no signs of their disease 3 years after the end of treatment. This is called disease free survival. They found it was:
- almost 7 out of every 10 people (66%) who had pazopanib
- about 6 out of every 10 people (62%) who had a dummy drug
The team also looked at the most common side effects people had. They were:
- diarrhoea
- high blood pressure
- changes to the hair colour
- feeling sick
- tiredness (fatigue)
The trial team concluded that pazopanib doesn’t stop renal cell cancer from coming back after surgery. They also found that the side effects of pazopanib in this study were similar to the side effects from previous trials.
We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (
peer reviewed 
) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.