Surgical intervention in patients with metastatic renal cancer: metastasectomy and cytoreductive nephrectomy

For patients with metastatic renal cancer, prognostic factors defined in systemic therapy clinical trials stratify patients into good, intermediate, and poor risk groups with median survival varying from 4 to 13 months. These same factors also stratify patients whose renal cancers were initially resected completely and who then developed subsequent metastatic disease. Metastasectomy performed in low-risk patients was significantly associated with enhanced survival when compared with low-risk patients not undergoing metastasectomy. Two randomized, prospective clinical trials demonstrated a modest survival advantage of approximately 6 months for patients undergoing cytoreductive nephrectomy followed by interferon alfa-2b. Once effective systemic agents are developed, both metastasectomy and cytoreductive nephrectomy will play greater roles in consolidating clinical responses.