Kidney Cancer Patients May Be Overtreated

A less aggressive type of surgery designed to spare healthy organ tissue is used infrequently to treat early-stage kidney cancer, according to researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A majority of patients with small kidney tumors have their entire kidney removed as treatment, even though they may be eligible for a type of surgery that removes only the cancer and spares the rest of the normal kidney. This surgery, called partial nephrectomy, has been associated with improved quality of life and better preservation of long-term kidney function.

Studies have shown that for tumors smaller than 4 centimeters, removing only the tumor and a small margin of healthy tissue is just as effective at controlling the cancer as removing the entire kidney, an operation called total nephrectomy.

At the same time, by sparing the remainder of the affected kidney, patients may be less vulnerable to long-term declines in kidney function - a concern particularly relevant for patients with other conditions that affect the kidneys, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. In addition, sparing a portion of the affected kidney creates more options if a new tumor develops in the patient's second kidney, a risk confronting a small number of people with kidney cancer.

The study looked at 14,647 people treated from 1988 to 2001 for kidney cancers less than 7 centimeters in size. Data was obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) registry, which collects annual data about cancer incidence, treatment and mortality. Results of the study appear in the March issue of the Journal of Urology.

The researchers found that during this 13-year interval, only 9.6 percent of patients were treated with partial nephrectomy, while the remaining 90 percent had their entire kidney removed. The smaller the tumor, the more likely patients were to receive partial nephrectomy, although even among this group, partial nephrectomy was infrequently used: 40 percent of patients with tumors less than 2 centimeters received partial nephrectomy, and 20 percent of patients whose tumors were 2 to 4 centimeters did.

One possible explanation for the larger number of total kidney removals, the researchers suggest, is that total nephrectomy is more likely than partial nephrectomy to be performed with minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. This means only a small incision is needed and recovery is generally easier than with open surgery. Partial nephrectomy can be done laparoscopically but is technically difficult and is not offered at all hospitals.

"For most surgeons, myself included, partial nephrectomy, whether open or laparoscopic, is likely to be a more difficult operation than removing the entire kidney. Many surgeons are able to take the whole kidney out laparoscopically but are less experienced performing partial nephrectomy laparoscopically. At least for the most recent years in this study, such technical considerations may have swayed how doctors presented treatment options to patients and how patients decided what surgery to have," says study author David Miller, M.D., clinical lecturer in urology at the U-M Medical School.