Analysis of clinical characteristics and prognostic factors of elderly patients with renal cell carcinoma based on the SEER database

Abstract

To study the difference of clinical characteristics and prognostic factors from elderly patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the statistical analysis was carried out based on the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database. The relevant clinical information of 19,472 RCC patients from 2010 to 2015 were collected, and the differences of clinicopathological characteristics and survival rate was analyzed by log-rank method and Chi square test, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression model was used to explore the independent risk factors affecting the long-term survival of RCC patients. Results showed that the proportion of elderly RCC patients in the 60–64-year group in 2010 was 15.20%, but the value elevated to 18.51% in 2015, and the Chi-square test revealed the significant correlation between elderly RCC patients with gender, race, American Joint Committee on cancer stage, T stage, N stage, and M stage. The difference of survival time between the 60–69 year, 70–79 year, 80–84 year, and 85+ year group was significant, and Kaplan–Meier analysis showed a negative effects of age on survival rate of RCC patients, indicating a worsening trend with increasing age. Cox proportional hazards model analysis further confirmed that age was the important independent prognostic factor. Our study reveals that the onset age of RCC in elderly population is gradually decreasing, and the malignant degree of elderly RCC patients is increasing with age. The female elderly population could be more susceptible to RCC than male elderly population, and 85+ year population could also be cancer susceptible with a higher lymph node metastasis rate, later tumor stage, and poor prognosis, suggesting that these elderly populations should pay more attention to the RCC screening.