(UroToday.com) The 2023 EAU annual meeting included a session on locally advanced kidney cancer, featuring a presentation by Dr. Severin Rodler discussing patient experience with recurrence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The gold-standard for localized RCC is partial or radical nephrectomy. However, recurrence remains a challenge after curative treatment and patients´ experience and perception, as well as the role of medical teams during this time, is unclear.
The Kidney Cancer Research Alliance (KKCure) developed a survey with the support of a multidisciplinary team of urologic surgeons, medical oncologists and patient advocates. Patients with RCC were surveyed via website, mailing lists and social media platforms between July 2022 and September 2022. Anonymized IP address tracking was used to prevent multiple responses from the same patient. Overall, 1,062 patients with RCC participated, of which 623 patients self-identified with localized RCC (Stage I-III) at initial diagnosis.
The median age of the cohort of patients with localized disease (n = 623) was 61 (19-89) years. During follow-up, 184 (29.5%) patients had a recurrence, which in the majority of patients (81.4%) occurred within 5 years after surgery, however 34 (18.6%) patients had a recurrence of RCC more than 5 years after surgery:
Most patients reported that recurrence was observed during routine follow-up scans, but recurrence was also revealed due to symptoms in 22 cases (12.0%), and found incidentally when undergoing scans for other reasons than RCC in 16 cases (8.7%):
The majority of patients (n=108, 61.0%) stated that they did all they could to try to prevent recurrence, while 16 (9.0%) patients disagreed with this statement. There were 61 (34.1%) patients that agreed their medical team has prepared them for recurrence and 68 (38.0%) patients who disagreed with this statement. Finally, there were 116 (65.2%) patients agreed to have a medical team in place, and only 42 patients (23.3%) felt rushed to find a medical team at the time of recurrence:
Dr. Rodler concluded his presentation discussing patient experience with recurrence of renal cell carcinoma with the following take-home messages:
- The variety of recurrence time points in this large real-world collective analysis shows the importance and challenges of follow-up scans, especially more than 5 years after surgery
- Medical teams play a crucial part during recurrence and can prepare patients for this event
Presented by: Severin Rodler, MD, Klinikum der Universität München, Dept. of Urology, Munich, Germany
Co-Authors: Goetz M.1, Graser A.1, Pal S.K.2, Vaishampayan U.3, Battle D.4, Staehler M.1
Affiliations: 1Klinikum der Universität München, Dept. of Urology, Munich, Germany, 2City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Dept. of Medical Oncology, Duarte, United States of America, 3University of Michigan, Dept. of Medicine, Ann Arbor, United States of America, 4KCCure, Alexandria, United States of America
Written by: Zachary Klaassen, MD, MSc – Urologic Oncologist, Assistant Professor of Urology, Georgia Cancer Center, Augusta University/Medical College of Georgia, @zklaassen_md on Twitter during the 2023 European Association of Urology (EAU) 38th annual congress held in Milan, Italy between March 10-13, 2023