Kidney Cancer And Competing Causes Of Mortality: An Age-Based Population Study

Main Category: Urology / Nephrology
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 09 Jun 2008 - 0:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

ORLANDO, FL (UroToday.com) - The increase in the incidental detection of small renal masses (SRM) has lead to an increase in the number of SRM detected in elderly patients.

The risk of developing metastases in these small tumors appears to be low over a period of 3 to 5 years. Dr Kaplan from Fox Chase Cancer Center presented his work evaluating the competing causes of non-cancer and cancer based death compared to death rates from RCC in age matched patients. The National Vital Statistics Reports was used to determine the mortality and survival rates. The 5-year mortality rate for 2,448,288 deaths in 2003 was analyzed for cause of death. The all-cause 5-year death rates for patients >75 was 25% and for those >85, it was 55%.

The relative survival for patients with localized, lymph node negative RCC was obtained from the SEER database. People >75 years old had a very small risk of death from RCC (0.24%) and this was even less for those >85 (0.12%). Comorbid conditions in elderly patients are more likely to place the patient's life at risk than a small incidental renal mass. When managing elderly patients with a small renal mass it is important to consider the potential morbidity of treatment along with the risks of surveillance in context of the patients overall health and life expectancy.

These data suggest that active surveillance may be appropriate for selected elderly and comorbid patients.

Presented by David J Kaplan, David A Kunkle, Ismail R Saad, Brian L Egleston, Robert Uzzo at the Annual Meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) - May 17 - 22, 2008. Orange County Convention Center - Orlando, Florida, USA.

Reported by UroToday.com Contributing Editor Geoff Box, MD

UroToday - the only urology website with original content written by global urology key opinion leaders actively engaged in clinical practice.

To access the latest urology news releases from UroToday, go to: www.urotoday.com

Copyright © 2008 - UroToday