Renal cell carcinoma presents with metastatic disease in approximately 30% of patients at the time of diagnosis.
Cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) of the primary tumor in the face of metastatic disease is part of a multimodality approach including systemic therapy that is based on evidence from randomized trials in the cytokine era. Data from the pretargeted therapy era showed that CN had a clear role in metastatic renal cell carcinoma, increasing life expectancy by approximately 6 months. The substantial improvement in outcomes reported for targeted therapy has challenged the previous role of CN. However, despite the absence of data from Phase III trials, available evidence suggests that some patients may benefit substantially from CN in the era of targeted therapy. This review summarizes current arguments for CN and how to best select patients for surgery. Ongoing trials are key in generating evidence towards a personalized approach to debulking nephrectomy.
Written by:
Bex A, Powles T. Are you the author?
The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Urology, Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Reference: Expert Rev Anticancer Ther. 2012 Jun;12(6):787-97.
doi: 10.1586/era.12.54
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22716495
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