A new study published in Journal of Surgical Oncology last month suggests that high body mass index (BMI) may be related to improved recurrence-free and cancer-specific survival among older patients with non-metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

It is known that obesity is a risk factor for the development of RCC, but evidence for how obesity affects survival is mixed.

This study was a retrospective study looking at the outcomes of 2,092 patients with non-metastatic clear cell RCC. All patients had surgery with the view to curing their cancer. Patients were analysed in two groups – patients 45 years and over, and patients younger than 45 years. There was no significant difference in BMI between the two groups, and patients were followed for a median time of 40 months.

Five-year recurrence-free survival was 89.1% for older patients with high BMI (>25 kg/m2) versus 84.3% among older patients with normal BMI. For younger patients, 5-year recurrence-free survival was 93.5% and 92.5% among the high BMI and low BMI groups, respectively. A similar pattern was seen for cancer-specific survival.

This study demonstrates that high BMI has prognostic value for recurrence-free and cancer-specific survival for older patients (45 years and over) with non-metastatic clear cell RCC.

Read more in Renal & Urology News here

Read the original paper in Journal of Surgical Oncology here