Preoperative Renal Artery Embolization Before Radical Nephrectomy for Nonmetastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Propensity Score Matched Analysis

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of preoperative renal artery embolization (PRAE) before radical nephrectomy (RN) for advanced nonmetastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) on perioperative and oncologic outcomes.Materials and Methods: We analyzed 820 patients who had undergone RN for advanced nonmetastatic RCC (cT3-4/N0-1) between June 2003 and May 2022. Propensity score matching (PSM) at a 1:2 ratio was performed using the nearest-neighbor method, matching 121 PRAE patients to 242 controls. The primary endpoints included recurrence rate, overall survival, cancer-specific survival, and recurrence-free survival.Results: Before PSM, there were differences in sex (p=0.047), clinical stage (p=0.001), and the Fuhrman grade (p<0.001) between the 2 groups. After PSM, the baseline characteristics were well balanced. The mean age at operation was 58.2±13.0 years, and the median follow-up was 42.0 months. The postoperative transfusion rate was higher in PRAE group (18.2% vs. 10.7%, p=0.049). No significant differences were found between the PRAE and control groups in operation time (166.6±95.3 minutes vs. 155.5±74.2 minutes, p=0.263), estimated blood loss (360.4±732.0 mL vs. 293.4±596.6 mL, p=0.384), or length of hospital stay (7.7±4.9 days vs. 7.7±3.7 days, p=0.961) between the 2 groups. Recurrence was significantly less common in the PRAE group than in the control group (20.7% vs. 34.3%, p=0.007). No significant differences were found in cancer-specific death (8.3% vs. 9.1%, p=0.793) or overall death (8.3% vs. 12.0%, p=0.281). In multivariate logistic regression analysis, clinical T stage ≥3 (odds ratio [OR], 4.365; p<0.001), clinical N stage 1 (OR, 2.405; p=0.020) and no PRAE (OR, 2.293; p=0.004) were independent predictors of recurrence.Conclusions: Our results showed that PRAE was related to a lower recurrence rate. Thus, PRAE seems to be useful before RN for nonmetastatic RCC patients.