This study used data from the Canadian Kidney Cancer Information System and was presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2019 annual meeting in Chicago earlier this week. During the study, patient outcomes and safety data were collected from patients who underwent active surveillance and compared to those who received immediate systemic treatment.

A total of 863 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) were included in the active surveillance group, and 848 patients received immediate systemic treatment. Patients in the active surveillance group were significantly older, had fewer metastases, and had more metastases surgically removed compared with patients in the systemic treatment group. Patients who underwent active surveillance had significantly greater 5-year overall survival probability (70.2% vs 32.1%) and 370 started treatment 6 months or more after their initial diagnosis. These patients had significantly longer overall survival and time until first-line treatment failure compared with patients who started treatment immediately.

The researchers concluded that selected patients can be safely observed and do not require immediate systemic treatment; however, further prospective studies are needed to validate this finding.

Read more in UroToday here