Disease‐free survival as a predictor of overall survival in localized renal cell carcinoma following initial nephrectomy: A retrospective analysis of Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results‐Medicare datac

Abstract

ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess whether disease‐free survival (DFS) may serve as a predictor for long‐term survival among patients with intermediate‐high risk or high risk renal cell carcinoma (RCC) post‐nephrectomy when overall survival (OS) is unavailable.MethodsThe Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results‐Medicare database (2007–2016) was used to identify patients with non‐metastatic intermediate‐high risk and high risk RCC post‐nephrectomy. Landmark analysis and Kendall's τ were used to evaluate the correlation between DFS and OS. Multivariable regression models were used to quantify the incremental OS post‐nephrectomy associated with increased time to recurrence among patients with recurrence, adjusting for baseline covariates.ResultsA total of 643 patients were analyzed; mean age of 75 years; >95% of patients had intermediate‐high risk RCC at diagnosis; 269 patients had recurrence post‐nephrectomy. For patients with versus without recurrence at the landmark points of 1, 3, and 5 years post‐nephrectomy, the 5‐year OS were 37.0% versus 70.1%, 42.3% versus 72.8%, and 53.2% versus 78.6%, respectively. The Kendall's τ between DFS and OS post‐nephrectomy was 0.70 (95% CI: 0.65, 0.74; p < 0.001). After adjusting for baseline covariates, patients with one additional year of time to recurrence were associated with 0.73 years longer OS post‐nephrectomy (95% CI: 0.40, 1.05; p < 0.001).ConclusionThe significant positive association of DFS and OS among patients with intermediate‐high risk and high risk RCC post‐nephrectomy from this study supports the use of DFS as a potential predictor of OS for these patients when OS data are immature.