†These authors contributed equally.
Background: The advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs)
has revolutionized the metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) therapeutic
landscape. Nevertheless, tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting the vascular
endothelial growth factor (VEGF) axis still play a key role. The aim of the
present study was to explore the prognostic performance of an integrated blood
score, based on hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and
red cell distribution width (RDW), in mRCC patients treated with anti-VEGF TKIs.
The primary endpoint was to correlate Hb, MCV, and RDW with progression-free
survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Materials and Methods: Our
multicenter retrospective observational study involved mRCC patients treated with
pazopanib or cabozantinib from January 2012 to December 2020 in nine Italian
centers. Clinical records and laboratory data, including Hb levels, MCV, and RDW,
were collected at baseline. Descriptive statistics and univariate and
multivariate analyses were performed. Results: We enrolled 301 mRCC
patients of which 179 (59%) underwent pazopanib, and 122 (41%) cabozantinib. We
considered baseline Hb

