Surgical Intervention in Patients with Metastatic Renal Cancer: Metastasectomy and Cytoreductive Nephrectomy

The Effect of Local Therapy on M1c Prostate Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to explore the effect of local treatment (LT) on overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific mortality (CSM) for patients diagnosed with M1c prostate cancer (PCa). Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, EBSCO, and Cochrane library databases (updated November 2020) were searched for studies assessing the effect of LT on patients with M1c Pca. The search strategy and study selection process was managed according to the PRISMA statement. Results: Four cohort respective studies were identified for satisfying the inclusion criteria. Our results indicated that LT significantly improved CSM (HR = 0.36, 95% CI = 0.22-0.60; P < 0.0001) and OS (HR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.24-0.77; P = 0.004). Subgroup analysis showed that radical prostatectomy (RP) and radiation therapy (RT) including brachytherapy (BT), conformal radiation therapy (CRT), and intensity modulated radiation (IMRT) had a significant benefit on cutting down the CSM of M1c PCa patients (HR = 0.27, 95% CI = 0.13-0.56; P = 0.0005 and HR = 0.42, 95% CI = 0.20-0.89; P = 0.02). In addition, RP had improved the OS for patients (HR = 0.33, 95% CI = 0.15-0.73; P = 0.008). There was no difference of OS in patients that underwent RT (HR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.24-1.40; P = 0.23). No significant heterogeneity was among the results, indicating consistency in the study. Conclusions: Present meta-analysis indicates that LT for M1c PCa correlated with decreased CSM and enhanced OS. The survival benefit of RP was successfully confirmed and the advantage of RT seemed to be associated with the tumor burden and method of RT.

Coumarins and Coumarin-Related Compounds in Pharmacotherapy of Cancer

Cancer is one of the most common causes of disease-related deaths worldwide. Despite the discovery of many chemotherapeutic drugs that inhibit uncontrolled cell division processes for the treatment of various cancers, serious side effects of these drugs are a crucial disadvantage. In addition, multi-drug resistance is another important problem in anticancer treatment. Due to problems such as cytotoxicity and drug resistance, many investigations are being conducted to discover and develop effective anticancer drugs. In recent years, researchers have focused on the anticancer activity coumarins, due to their high biological activity and low toxicity. Coumarins are commonly used in the treatment of prostate cancer, renal cell carcinoma and leukemia, and they also have the ability to counteract the side effects caused by radiotherapy. Both natural and synthetic coumarin derivatives draw attention due to their photochemotherapy and therapeutic applications in cancer. In this review, a compilation of various research reports on coumarins with anticancer activity and investigation and a review of structure-activity relationship studies on coumarin core are presented. Determination of important structural features around the coumarin core may help researchers to design and develop new analogues with a strong anticancer effect and reduce the potential side effects of existing therapeutics.

Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma of the Nasal Septum: A Case Report

Metastatic lesions of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses are rare tumors. Carcinomas originating from intrapelvic organs play an important role in the differential diagnosis of these masses because of their paradoxic spread to the head and neck region. In this study we report a case with metastatic renal cell carcinoma of the caudal nasal septum.

Gastrointestinal Involvement of Recurrent Renal Cell Carcinoma: CT Findings and Clinicopathologic Features

OBJECTIVE

To retrospectively evaluate the CT findings and clinicopathologic features in patients with gastrointestinal (GI) involvement of recurrent renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The medical records were reviewed for 15 patients with 19 pathologically proven GI tract metastases of RCC. The CT findings were analyzed to determine the involved sites and type of involvement; lesion size, morphology, and contrast enhancement pattern; and occurrence of lymphadenopathy, ascites and other complications.

RESULTS

The most common presentation was GI bleeding (66.7%). The average interval between nephrectomy and the detection of GI involvement was 30.4 ± 37.4 months. GI lesions were most commonly found in the ileum (36.8%) and duodenum (31.6%). A distant metastasis (80%) was more common than a direct invasion from metastatic lesions. The mean lesion size was 34.1 ± 15.0 mm. Intraluminal polypoid masses (63.2%) with hyperenhancement (78.9%) and heterogeneous enhancement (63.2%) were the most common findings. No patients had regional lymphadenopathy. Complications occurred in four patients, with one each of bowel obstruction, intussusception, bile duct dilatation, and pancreatic duct dilatation.

CONCLUSION

GI involvement of recurrent RCC could be included in the differential diagnosis of patients with heterogeneous, hyperenhanced intraluminal polypoid masses in the small bowel on CT scans along with a relative paucity of lymphadenopathy.

Mortality trends and the impact of lymphadenectomy on survival for renal cell carcinoma patients with distant metastasis

INTRODUCTION

Current treatment paradigms for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) invoke a combination of surgical and systemic therapies. We sought to quantify trends in mortality and performance of lymphadenectomy, as well as impact on survival for patients with mRCC.

METHODS

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry (SEER) (1988-2011) identified patients with mRCC. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models with competing risks regression were employed to assess survival.

RESULTS

15 060 patients with mRCC were identified, with 6316 (41.9%) undergoing cytoreductive nephrectomy. Mean number of lymph nodes removed was 6.2, with mean 3.3 positive nodes among 1018 (43.9%) patients with positive nodes. Median overall survival (OS) increased from seven to 11 months (1999-2010), and finding a positive node decreased median cancer survival from 22 to nine months. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) showed significant decreases in mortality after 2005 (hazard ratio [HR] 0.71 [0.60-0.83] comparing 2010 to 1990). Lymphadenectomy was associated with decreased OS (HR 1.10 [1.03-1.16]; p=0.002) due to decreased CSS (HR 1.10 [1.04-1.17]; p<0.001) without increase in other-cause mortality (HR 0.94 [0.79-1.11]; p=0.455). However, more extensive lymphadenectomy ≥3 lymph nodes removed did not significantly impact OS or CSS. Number of positive lymph nodes was associated with decreased CSS.

CONCLUSIONS

mRCC continues to carry a poor prognosis, but current treatment paradigms have led to modest improvements in OS and CSS in recent years. Lymphadenectomy was found to play a prognostic rather than therapeutic role in the management of mRCC. The performance of lymphadenectomy should be limited based on clinical judgment and better incorporated into randomized trials of new systemic therapies to identify scenarios where implementation may improve survival.

Metachronous bladder metastases of a type 2 papillary renal cell carcinoma: a case report and review of the literature

Background

Renal cell carcinoma developing metastases in the bladder is rare. Bladder metastasis due to a papillary type of renal cell carcinoma is rarer. Such metastases could be synchronous or metachronous.

Case presentation

Here we present a 55-year-old female patient with haematuria who underwent left nephro-ureterectomy for a suspected urothelial tumour. Histopathology revealed it to be a type 2 papillary renal cell carcinoma. Eighteen months later, she developed metachronous bladder metastasis of the papillary renal cell carcinoma which was treated with total cystectomy. Currently, she is on interferon therapy.

Conclusions

These bladder metastases from renal cell carcinoma could be due to drop metastases, lymphatic spread or haematogenous spread. The exact mechanism in a given case appears to be unpredictable.

Economic sustainability of anti-PD-1 agents nivolumab and pembrolizumab in cancer patients: Recent insights and future challenges

Anti-programmed death (PD)-1 agents pembrolizumab and nivolumab have recently obtained enthusiastic results in terms of progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and tolerability in cancer patients. Despite these promising data, the high cost of these agents needs careful consideration. Indeed, the evaluation of cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) and quality-adjusted life year (QALY), as well as different drug reimbursement modalities, will represent fundamental tools in order to guarantee the economic sustainability of health system and the access to care for all cancer patients. In this review, we discussed the recent results obtained by immunotherapy in cancer patients and we evaluated the economic impact of recently approved nivolumab and pembrolizumab in patients with advanced melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

The Effect of Preoperative Apolipoprotein A-I on the Prognosis of Surgical Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Retrospective Large Sample Study

The prognostic value of serum lipid-profile in renal cell cancer (RCC) remains unknown. The purpose of the study is to explore the association between the serum lipid-profile and RCC patients.The levels of preoperative serum lipid-profile (including cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol [HDL-C], low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol [LDL-C], apolipoprotein A-I [ApoA-I], and apolipoprotein B [ApoB]) were retrospectively performed in 786 patients with RCC. The cutoff values of the lipids were determined by the receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to investigate the prognostic value of serum lipids in RCC.Combined ROC analysis and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses, for overall survival (OS), revealed patients with low ApoA-I (<1.04) had significantly lower OS than the high ApoA-I (≥1.04) group (multivariate Cox regression analyses, hazard ratio [HR], 0.57; P = 0.003). Not only in the whole RCC cohort but also in the subgroups stratified according to the pT1-2 (P = 0.002), pN0 (P < 0.001), and pM0 (P = 0.001) status, respectively. Moreover, in the 755 patients with nonmetastasis, the low ApoA-I group was also associated with shortened disease-free survival (DFS) time compared to the high ApoA-I group (multivariate Cox regression analyses, HR, 0.65; P = 0.033). However, the other lipids were not independent prognostic factors for surgical RCC.An elevated level of preoperative ApoA-I was demonstrated to be related with better survival in patients with surgical RCC. Measuring the preoperative ApoA-I might be a simple way for finding the poor prognostic patients who should enrolled in further clinical trials and management.

Renal cancer

The diagnosis and management of renal cell carcinoma have changed remarkably rapidly. Although the incidence of renal cell carcinoma has been increasing, survival has improved substantially. As incidental diagnosis of small indolent cancers has become more frequent, active surveillance, robot-assisted nephron-sparing surgical techniques, and minimally invasive procedures, such as thermal ablation, have gained popularity. Despite progression in cancer control and survival, locally advanced disease and distant metastases are still diagnosed in a notable proportion of patients. An integrated management strategy that includes surgical debulking and systemic treatment with well established targeted biological drugs has improved the care of patients. Nevertheless, uncertainties, controversies, and research questions remain. Further advances are expected from translational and clinical studies.

Transplantation of kidneys with tumors

The shortage of donors in the face of the increasing number of patients wait-listed for renal transplantation has prompted several strategies including the use of kidneys with a tumor, whether found by chance on harvesting from a deceased donor or intentionally removed from a living donor and transplanted after excision of the lesion. Current evidence suggests that a solitary well-differentiated renal cell carcinoma, Fuhrman nuclear grade I-II, less than 1 cm in diameter and resected before grafting may be considered at minimal risk of recurrence in the recipient who, however, should be informed of the possible risk and consent to receive such a graft.

Molecular marker for predicting treatment response in advanced renal cell carcinoma: does the promise fulfill clinical need?

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is largely diagnosed incidentally on imaging taken for unrelated reasons. The management of localized lesions is primarily extirpative with excellent results. Treatment of advanced RCC has evolved over recent years with the use of targeted therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors, mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors, and antibody-mediated therapies. The treatment response to these targeted therapies is highly variable, with no clear clinical method of identifying patients who will benefit from or not tolerate therapy. The field of molecular markers has evolved significantly in the last decade, with a multitude of markers identified that predict treatment response and drug toxicity. The following review critically evaluates those molecular markers that have been assessed for their utility in predicting treatment response in patients with advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Identifying the ideal treatment for these patients will improve responses to therapy, minimize morbidity, and save significant healthcare dollars.

Local therapy with continued EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy as a treatment strategy in EGFR-mutant advanced lung cancers that have developed acquired resistance to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors

BACKGROUND

Development of acquired resistance limits the utility of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) for the treatment of EGFR-mutant lung cancers. There are no accepted targeted therapies for use after acquired resistance develops. Metastasectomy is used in other cancers to manage oligometastatic disease. We hypothesized that local therapy is associated with improved outcomes in patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancers with acquired resistance to EGFR TKI.

METHODS

Patients who received non-central nervous system local therapy were identified by a review of data from a prospective biopsy protocol for patients with EGFR-mutant lung cancers with acquired resistance to EGFR TKI therapy and other institutional biospecimen registry protocols.

RESULTS

Eighteen patients were identified, who received elective local therapy (surgical resection, radiofrequency ablation, or radiation). Local therapy was well tolerated, with 85% of patients restarting TKI therapy within 1 month of local therapy. The median time to progression after local therapy was 10 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2-27 months). The median time until a subsequent change in systemic therapy was 22 months (95% CI: 6-30 months). The median overall survival from local therapy was 41 months (95% CI: 26-not reached).

CONCLUSIONS

EGFR-mutant lung cancers with acquired resistance to EGFR TKI therapy are amenable to local therapy to treat oligometastatic disease when used in conjunction with continued EGFR inhibition. Local therapy followed by continued treatment with an EGFR TKI is well tolerated and associated with long PFS and OS. Further study in selected individuals in the context of other systemic options is required.

Selecting patients for cytoreductive nephrectomy in advanced renal cell carcinoma: who and when

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.

C-reactive protein in patients with advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma: usefulness in identifying patients most likely to benefit from initial nephrectomy

Objective

C-reactive protein (CRP) is considered a useful serum marker for patients with RCC. However, its clinical utility in advanced metastatic renal cell carcinoma (AM-RCC), particularly in deciding whether to perform nephrectomy at the onset, is not well studied.

Patients and methods

We retrospectively evaluated 181 patients with AM-RCC, including 18 patients underwent potentially curative surgery, 111 underwent cytoreductive nephrectomy, and 52 received medical treatment only. CRP cutoff points were determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used for survival tests.

Results

ROC analysis suggested that grouping patients according to 3 CRP ranges was a rational model. Patients with highly elevated CRP (≥67.0 mg/L) presented remarkably poor prognosis despite treatment (nephrectomy or medical treatment only). Cox regression models demonstrated that risk factors of overall survival for patients who underwent nephrectomy were the CRP ranges defined in this study (≤18.0 mg/L, >18.0 and <67.0 mg/L, and ≥67.0 mg/L), ECOG PS (0, 1, and ≥2), and number of metastatic organ sites (0–1 and ≥2). The retrospective design is a limitation of this study.

Conclusion

Our study demonstrated that the serum CRP level is a statistically significant prognostic parameter for patients with AM-RCC. The data also indicated that pretreatment serum CRP level provides useful prognostic information that helps in deciding whether to perform initial nephrectomy for patients with AM-RCC.

Systematic classification and prediction of complications after nephrectomy in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC)

Study Type - Harm (case series) Level of Evidence 4. What's known on the subject? and What does the study add? Radical nephrectomy for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma results in greater rates of morbidity than for those with less advanced disease. This study systematically characterizes complications associated with nephrectomy for metastatic RCC and identifies patient and disease characteristics that are associated with a greater risk of developing complications. Overall complications were relatively frequent, but major complications (grade 3 or greater) were rare. Increasing age and worsening performance status were associated with increased probability of complications. When complications were sustained, patients were less likely to receive systemic therapy in a timely fashion. These observations may influence the timing or patient selection for surgery or systemic therapy.

OBJECTIVE

• To evaluate and identify factors predictive for morbidity after radical nephrectomy in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

PATIENTS AND METHODS

• We identified patients with mRCC who underwent nephrectomy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) between 1989 and 2009. • Postoperative complications were characterised using a modified version of the Clavien-Dindo classification system. • Patient and disease characteristics, including a previously validated MSKCC risk-stratification system using calcium, haemoglobin (Hb), lactate dehydrogenase, and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), were evaluated as predictors of postoperative complications using univariate and multivariable logistic regression models. • The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated for each model to assess predictive accuracy and corrected for overfit using 10-fold cross validation.

RESULTS

• Over the study period, 195 patients with mRCC underwent nephrectomy; 53 (27%) developed grade ≥ 2 complications within 8 weeks of surgery. • Pulmonary, thromboembolic events and anaemia requiring transfusion were the most common types of complications after nephrectomy in the metastatic setting. • In univariate analysis, age, low albumin, low KPS, high corrected serum calcium, low serum Hb, and unfavourable MSKCC risk score were predictive of complications. • Patients who sustained postoperative complications were less likely to receive systemic therapy within 56 days (odds ratio [OR] 0.32; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.12-0.86; P= 0.024). • A multivariable model containing KPS (OR 14.5; 95%CI 4.34-48.6; P < 0.001) and age (OR 1.04; 95%CI 1.01-1.08; P= 0.014) showed the greatest predictive accuracy (corrected AUC 0.72; 95%CI 0.63-0.80) for postoperative complications.

CONCLUSIONS

• Postoperative complications after radical nephrectomy in the setting of mRCC are common and occur frequently in older patients and those with worse KPS. • These complications are important because they may delay or deny receipt of subsequent systemic therapy.

The role of surgery in the management of early-stage renal cancer

There were an estimated 58,240 new cases and 13,040 deaths from kidney cancer in the United States in 2010. The increased treatment and cure of small, incidentally discovered renal tumors, most of which are nonlethal in nature, has not offset the increased mortality caused by advanced and metastatic tumors. In this article, the optimum approach to the surgical management of localized renal tumors and its impact on renal function are discussed.

Ablation of pulmonary malignancy: current status

Since the first reported use of radiofrequency ablation of the lung in 2000, the field of image-guided lung ablation has received a considerable amount of attention. Survival studies have demonstrated the potential utility of thermal ablation in the treatment of patients with early-stage primary and limited secondary pulmonary tumors with promising results. Diagnostic imaging studies have advanced the understanding of the expected immediate postablation appearance of treated lesions, leading the way for early detection of local tumor progression. These survival studies and the expected imaging follow-up of these patients are reviewed herein.

Severe Dyspnea due to Pulmonary Metastasis of Renal Cell Carcinoma: Is Cytoreductive Surgery of Value?

Here, we present a case in which cytoreductive surgery, like left radical nephrectomy, was effective in the treatment of pulmonary metastases and para-aortic metastases from renal cell carcinoma. A 28-year-old man underwent left radical nephrectomy with pulmonary metastasectomy for the diagnosis of metastatic left renal cell carcinoma. The histologic diagnosis was clear cell carcinoma G2, pT3N1M1. He subsequently underwent i.m. administration of IFN-α, 5 million units per day for 30 days. The nasal oxygen mask was weaned gradually, and the chest tube was removable due to cessation of the continuous production of pleural fluid. The patient was well until one year after operation.

Multi-modal treatment for metastatic renal cancer: the role of surgery

Surgical intervention in the patients with metastatic renal cancer can occur in two settings: (1) to render a patient clinically free of all sites of primary disease and metastases, termed nephrectomy/metastasectomy, or (2) to resect the primary tumor in the face of unresectable metastatic disease prior to the initiation of systemic therapy, termed cytoreductive nephrectomy. Carefully selected patients with good performance status undergoing nephrectomy and subsequent metastasectomy may experience prolonged survival in the range of 30 months, which could be attributed to a combination of patient selection factors and the surgical resections. Randomized clinical trials from the United States and Europe have demonstrated a small but significant survival benefit to cytoreductive nephrectomy and cytokine therapy versus cytokine therapy alone which is measured in the range of 3-6 months and associated with overall survival of approximately 12 months. The precise mechanism by which cytoreductive nephrectomy improves survival is not known but may relate to reduction in the large primary immunosuppressive burden. Patient selection factors including performance status and serum factors (Hgb, corrected Ca++, LDH) stratify metastatic patients into risk groups, which are strongly associated with survival time in both medically and surgically treated patients with metastatic renal cancer. The development of multi-kinase and mTOR inhibitors has markedly improved survival in treatment naïve and previously treated patients with metastatic renal cancer , and these agents are currently under active clinical investigation in the neo-adjuvant and adjuvant setting.

Role of surgery in advanced/metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Metastatic renal cell cancer (RCC) is a malignant disease without curative treatment. These patients are usually symptomatic and desperate for effective palliative treatment. Radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy are not effective in these patients. A multimodal approach consisting of cytoreductive nephrectomy, systemic therapy (which includes cytokines or targeted molecules), and metastasectomy have been shown to be useful in prolonging the survival and improving the quality of life in a select group of patients with metastatic renal cancer. Patients with oligometastatic disease, good performance status, and delayed presentation of the secondaries have better results following this integrated approach. Although there is some controversy regarding the order in which nephrectomy and systemic therapy are to be instituted, well-controlled studies like the South West Oncology Group and European organization research and treatment of cancer have shown that upfront nephrectomy gives better survival compared to neoadjuvant systemic therapy followed by nephrectomy. This order is the standard presently. Of late, with better understanding of the genetic basis and the biology of the various subtypes of renal cell carcinoma, targeted molecular therapies have emerged as an equally effective alternative therapy to cytokines. Recent reports have proven that targeted therapy is more effective with comparable side effects. Metastasectomy in a subgroup of patients improves survival and quality of life specifically in those with lung secondaries and painful bone metastases.

Metachronous bladder metastases from renal cell carcinoma: a case report and review of the literature

Introduction:

adrenal gland, parotid gland, pharynx, eye and bladder are rare localizations of metastases of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We report a case of metachronous RCC metastases to the bladder in a patient with a medical history of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder.

Materials and methods:

a case study and review of the relevant literature are presented.

Results:

during a follow-up cystoscopy examination following treatment of TCC, a single 5-mm lesion was detected and endoscopically resected. The histology of the resected sample was confirmed to be RCC, comparable to a primary kidney cancer and not recurrent TCC.

Conclusion:

the patient had a probability of metastases three years after nephrectomy of 62.9%. Survival rates following single metastasectomy are 60% and 38% at three and five years, respectively; metachronous diagnosis has a better prognosis than synchronous. During RCC follow-up, each lesion should be considered as a possible metastasis of RCC.

[Aggressive fibromatosis (desmoid tumor) : A rare differential diagnosis of metastasis of renal cell carcinoma]

We report the case of a 65-year-old woman with an aggressive fibromatosis of the rectus abdominis muscle suspicious for a metastasis of renal cell carcinoma after tumor nephrectomy 3 years previously. Aggressive fibromatoses (desmoid tumors) are rare semimalignant tumors of the connective tissue with local infiltration and destruction of tissue. Complete resection is essential to avoid tumor relapse. Aggressive fibromatosis must be considered in the differential diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma metastasis. Complete resection and subsequent radiotherapy seem to be the therapy of choice.