MADRID, SPAIN (UroToday.com) - The appropriate length of long-term follow up after curative resection of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is currently not clearly defined. The authors of this study aimed to examine the long-term risk of recurrent RCC by examining the outcomes of a cohort of patients with at least ten years of negative follow up.
A total of 554 patients were included in the study, 23.6% of whom underwent a partial nephrectomy. Median follow-up time was over 15 years. The majority of patients had stage I disease (70%), low grade disease (72%), and clear cell histology (86%). The authors reported that 5.2% of the patients in the study recurred at a median of 13.4 years from surgery. The only variable predictive of recurrence in this time period was pathologic stage. Disease-specific survival at 15 and 20 years was 98.2% and 96%, respectively. Recurrent disease occurred most commonly in the contralateral kidney (1.8%), however recurrences occurred in the lung (0.9%), liver (0.2%), bone (0.2%), locally (0.6%), and in multiple sites (0.7%), or atypical sites (0.9%).
Based on these findings, the authors concluded that patients experiencing a disease-free interval of 10 years after curative resection of RCC remain at risk for recurrence at a rate of 5%. Stage appears to be the most important predictor of recurrent disease, and the authors commented that patients with stage pT1 disease may not require further follow up beyond 10 years.
Presented by A. Antonelli, M. Sodano, M. Furlan, G. Galvagni , F. Carobbio, A. Cozzoli, T. Zanotelli , and C. Simeone at the 30th Annual European Association of Urology (EAU) Congress - March 20 - 24, 2015 - IFEMA - Feria de Madrid - Madrid, Spain
Spedali Civili Hospital, Department of Urology, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
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Reported by Timothy Ito, MD, medical writer for UroToday.com