The Efficacy of Surgical Metastasectomy for Solitary Metastasis of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Patients with solitary metastasis of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) have shown to be ideal candidates for surgical metastasectomy (SM). However, whether SM will show more benefit than systemic therapy remains unclear. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> We included 73 patients treated for solitary metastasis after nephrectomy at our institute from April 2008 to December 2018. We compared the clinical outcomes between the SM (<i>n</i> = 29) and no-SM (<i>n</i> = 44) group which were treated with only systemic therapy. <b><i>Results:</i></b> Eleven of 29 patients in the SM group received presurgical targeted therapy (PTT). Although 13 of 29 patients in the SM group showed recurrence during the study period, a Cox proportional hazards model showed that SM was significantly associated with a favorable overall survival (hazard ratio: 0.18; <i>p</i> = 0.007). Patients receiving PTT prior to SM showed a longer recurrence-free survival after SM in comparison to those who underwent SM without PTT (median: not reached vs. 27.7 months; <i>p</i> = 0.009). <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> If resection is feasible, SM may be beneficial for patients with solitary metastasis of RCC, and we showed the possibility that PTT prior to SM may be effective for avoiding recurrence after SM. Further large-scale prospective studies are needed to clarify the ideal treatment strategy for metastatic RCC.