Faculty Bibliography

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate prostate cancer diagnosis rates and survival outcomes in patients receiving unrelated (non-prostate) urological care with those in patients receiving non-urological care. MATERIALS AND METHODS/METHODS:We conducted a population-based study using the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database to identify men who underwent surgical treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC; n = 18,188) and colorectal carcinoma (CRC; n = 45,093) between 1992 and 2008. Using SEER*stat software to estimate standardized incidence ratios (SIRs), we investigated rates of prostate cancer diagnosis in patients with RCC and patients with CRC. Adjusting for patient age, race and year of diagnosis on multivariate analysis, we used Cox and Fine and Gray proportional hazards regressions to evaluate overall and disease-specific survival endpoints. RESULTS:The observed incidence of prostate cancer was higher in both the patients with RCC and those with CRC: SIR = 1.36 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.27-1.46) vs 1.06 (95% CI 1.02-1.11). Adjusted prostate cancer SIRs were 30% higher (P < 0.001) in patients with RCC. Overall (hazard ratio = 1.13, P < 0.001) and primary cancer-adjusted mortalities (sub-distribution Hazard Ratio (sHR) = 1.17, P < 0.001) were higher in patients with RCC with no significant difference in prostate cancer-specific mortality (sHR = 0.827, P = 0.391). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Rates of prostate cancer diagnosis were higher in patients with RCC (a cohort with unrelated urological cancer care) than in those with CRC. Despite higher overall mortality in patients with RCC, prostate cancer-specific survival was similar in both groups. Opportunities may exist to better target prostate cancer screening in patients who receive non-prostate-related urological care. Furthermore, urologists should not feel obligated to perform prostate-specific antigen screening for all patients receiving non-prostate-related urological care.

The increased diagnosis of small renal masses (SRMs) poses the challenge of how best to manage patients with tumours that are not likely to progress and cause death during their lifetime. Concerns regarding overdiagnosis and overtreatment of patients with low-risk or indolent disease has led to the introduction of active surveillance as an alternative to immediate intervention in select candidates. However, differentiating between benign or low-grade lesions and high-grade aggressive phenotypes is difficult. Renal biopsy, radiographic assessment, and clinical nomograms have been used before surgery to evaluate the probability of whether an SRM will exhibit characteristics of an aggressive cancer. SRM growth trends have been studied over periods of observation but no characteristics have been found to correlate with aggressive growth kinetics. Stratification of patients with SRMs according to risk status is crucial when considering whether active surveillance might be an appropriate treatment option. Factors that should be taken into account include comorbidities, a history of malignancy, pre-existing chronic kidney disease, life expectancy and patient preference. Standardized active surveillance protocols are currently lacking, and clinical trials designed to randomize patients with SRMs to receive either active surveillance or immediate treatment are sorely needed to address the existing evidence gap.

OBJECTIVE:To clearly define the proportions of benign vs malignant histologic findings in resected renal masses through an in-depth review of the contemporary medical data to assist in preoperative risk assessment. MATERIALS AND METHODS/METHODS:PubMed and select oncology congresses were searched for publications that identify the histologic classification of resected renal masses in a representative sample from the contemporary data: [search] incidence AND (renal cell carcinoma AND benign); incidence AND (renal tumor AND benign); percentage AND (renal cell carcinoma AND benign); limit 2003-2011. RESULTS:We identified 26 representative studies meeting the inclusion criteria and incorporating 27,272 patients. The frequency of benign tumors ranged from 7% to 33%, with most studies within a few percentage points of the mean (14.5% ± 5.2%, median 13.9%). Clear cell renal cell carcinoma occurred in 46% to 83% of patients, with a mean of 68.3% (median 61.3; SD = 11.9%). An inverse relationship between tumor size and benign pathologic features was identified in 14 of 19 (74%) studies that examined an association between tumor size and pathologic characteristics. A statistically significant correlation between clear cell renal cell carcinoma and tumor size was identified in 13 of 19 studies (63%). The accuracy of preoperative cross-sectional imaging was low in the 2 studies examining computed tomography (17%). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:Benign renal tumors represent ∼15% of detected surgically resected renal masses and are more prevalent among small clinical T1a lesions. Noninvasive preoperative differentiation between more and less aggressive renal masses would be an important clinical advance that could allow clinicians greater diagnostic confidence and guide patient management through improved risk stratification.