For kidney cancer, this cure's worse than the disease

[Taurus]

First the prostate and now the kidneys...

For kidney cancer, this cure's worse than the disease

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.

Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk of developing heart problems or dying of other causes, doctors found.

After five years, 24 percent of those who had surgery had died, compared to only 13 percent of those who chose monitoring. Just 3 percent of people in each group died of kidney cancer.

The study only involved people 66 and older, but half of all kidney cancers occur in this age group. Younger people with longer life expectancies should still be offered surgery, doctors stressed.

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[KinasePro]

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[DoctwoB]

First the prostate and now the kidneys...

For kidney cancer, this cure's worse than the disease

In a stunning example of when treatment might be worse than the disease, a large review of Medicare records finds that older people with small kidney tumors were much less likely to die over the next five years if doctors monitored them instead of operating right away.

Even though nearly all of these tumors turned out to be cancer, they rarely proved fatal. And surgery roughly doubled patients' risk of developing heart problems or dying of other causes, doctors found.

After five years, 24 percent of those who had surgery had died, compared to only 13 percent of those who chose monitoring. Just 3 percent of people in each group died of kidney cancer.

The study only involved people 66 and older, but half of all kidney cancers occur in this age group. Younger people with longer life expectancies should still be offered surgery, doctors stressed.

...
​

This data, while concerning, is hardly novel. We already know that RCC met risk and cancer survival directly correlate with tumor size. All the urologic oncologists I've worked with already base the decision to operate based on a combination of tumor size, patient life expectancy, patient surgical risk, and symptoms.

I haven't seen the manuscript, but based on there are also inherent limits to looking at this retrospectively unless strict inclusion/exclusion critera were used. There may be reasons why patients in this study were in the op vs. non-op groups (tumor size, comorbidities, etc.) which influence their outcomes.