Renal function after nephron-sparing surgery versus radical nephrectomy in localized renal cell carcinoma (T1)

Objective: To evaluate renal function (GFR) after radical nephrectomy compared to partial nephrectomy in stage T1 renal cell carcinoma patients between 2005 and 2015. Material and Method: Retrospective chart review of 409 patients who were diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma (T1) and treated with radical nephrectomy (RN) or partial nephrectomy (PN) between 2005 and 2015 (RN=136, PN=92); 228 patients with pathologically confirmed pT1 remained for analysis and were then evaluated for their estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) after the surgery. Results: There were a total of 228 (149 males and 79 females) T1 RCC patients; 136 patients were T1a with RN (57.8%) and 92 with PN (42.2%). Median follow-up was 58 months and 35 months for the RN and PN groups. From the analysis, post-operative eGFR of the RN group was decreased from 77.49 to 59.61 ml/min/1.73m2 and the PN group was decreased from 78.85 to 69.9 ml/min/1.73m2. The comparative eGFR between the 2 groups at 1 month had a significant difference (p-value<0.05). eGFR at 3 months (50.24 in RN vs 64.67 in PN), 6 months (47.98 vs 64.51), 3 years (48.79 vs 67.22) and 5 years (52.63 vs 73.59) were also significantly altered between the 2 groups. The tumor recurrence rate was not significantly different between RN and PN. Conclusion: We found that patients treated with PN had superior post-operative renal function compared with RN. However, there was no difference in the tumor recurrence rate between the 2 groups after a follow-up of 10 years.