Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jan-Dec:20:15330338211019507.
doi: 10.1177/15330338211019507.

Impact of Primary Tumor Size on Prognosis in Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Receiving Cytoreductive Nephrectomy: A Population Study of a Chinese Center and the US SEER Database

Weixing Jiang  1 , Jianzhong Shou  1 , Hongzhe Shi  1 , Li Wen  1 , Huijuan Zhang  2 , Shan Zheng  2 , Changling Li  1 , Jianhui Ma  1
Affiliations

Impact of Primary Tumor Size on Prognosis in Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Receiving Cytoreductive Nephrectomy: A Population Study of a Chinese Center and the US SEER Database

Weixing Jiang et al. Technol Cancer Res Treat. 2021 Jan-Dec.

Abstract

Background: The relationship between the size of the primary tumor and the prognosis of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) is unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the significance of the size of the primary tumor in mRCC.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the data of patients with mRCC who underwent cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) from 2006 to 2013 in a Chinese center (n = 96) and those in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (from 2004 to 2015, n = 4403). Tumors less than 4 cm in size were defined as small. Prognostic factors were analyzed using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses.

Results: Patients with small tumors had a longer overall survival than other patients, both in the Chinese cohort (median, 30.0 vs 24.0 months, P = 0.026) and the SEER cohort (median, 43.0 vs 23.0 months, P < 0.001). After adjusting for other significant prognostic factors, small tumor size was still an independent protective factor in the Chinese cohort (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.793; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.587-0.998, P = 0.043). In the SEER cohort, multivariate analysis showed that small tumor size was also an independent protective factor (HR, 0.880; 95% CI: 0.654-0.987, P = 0.008). In addition, as a continuous variable, a 1 cm elevation in tumor size translated into a 3.8% higher risk of death (HR, 1.038; 95% CI, 1.029-1.046; P < 0.001).

Conclusion: Patients with small tumors may have a favorable prognosis after CN for mRCC. Although CN is not a standard protocol in mRCC, small tumor size may be a candidate when we are deciding to perform CN because of the potential benefit for OS.

Keywords: cytoreductive nephrectomy; metastasis; primary tumor size; prognosis; renal cell carcinoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The process of screening patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma for analysis in the SEER cohort.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Patients with tumor size ≤ 4 cm achieved longer OS than those with tumor size > 4 cm in the Chinese cohort.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Survival curves indicate differences in tumor sizes between different histological types in the SEER cohort. A, All histologies; (B) Clear cell; (C) Papillary; (D) Chromophobe.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Survival difference in patients with different tumor sizes based on the staging system. A, Chinese cohort; (B) SEER cohort.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2019. CA Cancer J Clin. 2019;69(1):7–34. - PubMed
    1. Capitanio U, Bensalah K, Bex A, et al. Epidemiology of renal cell carcinoma. Eur Urol. 2019;75(1):74–84. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Escudier B, Porta C, Schmidinger M, et al. Renal cell carcinoma: ESMO clinical practice guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up†. Ann Oncol 2019;30(5):706–720. - PubMed
    1. Heng DYC, Xie W, Regan MM, et al. Prognostic factors for overall survival in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with vascular endothelial growth factor-targeted agents: results from a large, multicenter study. J Clin Oncol. 2009;27(34):5794–5799. - PubMed
    1. Powles T, Albiges L, Staehler M, et al. Updated European Association of Urology guidelines: recommendations for the treatment of first-line metastatic clear cell renal cancer. Eur Urol. 2018;73(3):311–315. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms