Prognosis of patients operated on for renal cell carcinoma and tumor venous thrombosis: experience of the Urology Clinics, N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology

Objective: to identify independent risk factors affecting survival of patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and tumor venous thrombosis who have undergone nephrectomy and thrombectomy.

Materials and methods. This study included 768 patients with RCC complicated by tumor venous thrombosis who have undergone nephrectomy and thrombectomy. Median age was 58 years (range: 16-82 years); the male to female ratio was 2.3:1. The symptoms of tumor venous thrombosis were identified in 232 patients (30.2 %); laboratory abnormalities at baseline were observed in 456 patients (59.3 %). Grade I and II tumor thrombosis was diagnosed in 456 (59.3 %) and 201 (26.2 %) patients, respectively; grade III and IV thrombosis was found in 171 (22.3 %) and 177 (23.0 %) patients, respectively. One hundred and twenty-nine participants (16.8 %) had infrarenal inferior vena cava thrombosis. Regional metastases were detected in 188 individuals (24.4 %), distant metastases were registered in 274 patients (35.7 %). All patients have undergone surgery: either radical (n = 555; 72.3 %) or cytoreductive (n = 213; 27.7 %). All primary tumors were histologically classified as RCC (G_3-4 in 337 cases; 43.9 %). A total of 719 patients (93.6 %) survived the perioperative period; 183 patients with metastasis (23.8 %) received systemic antitumor therapy.

Results. The median follow-up was 24 months (range: 1-200 months). The 24-month overall and cancer-specific survival of all patients were 96.9 and 99.7 %, respectively; recurrence-free survival of patients after radical surgery reached 92.9 %. Progression-free survival among those patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery and received first-line therapy/follow-up was 41.7 %. Negative predictive factors of overall survival included hepatomegaly (p = 0.024), ascites (p = 0.033), level IV tumor thrombosis (p <0.0001), infrarenal inferior vena cava thrombosis (p = 0.002), regional metastases (p <0.0001), and cytoreductive surgery (p = 0.012). Depending on the number of risk factors, we have identified 3 prognostic groups: favorable (0 factors), intermediate (1-2 factors), and poor (3-6 factors). Median overall survival differed significantly between the groups and was 128.6 ± 11.8; 40.9 ± 6.7 and 12.3 ± 2.2 months, respectively (p <0.0001 for all).

Conclusion. Stratification of patients operated on for RCC and venous tumor thrombosis with their allocation to prognostic groups will ensure the choice of an optimal management strategy.

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