A recent study from Canada investigated the use of surgery to remove metastases (metastasectomy)  as part of the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and whether this delayed progression of the disease and improved survival.

Real world data from 229 Canadian patients was used in this study. These data were matched with 803 control patients who did not have their metastases removed.

After 12 months, the survival was 96.0% in the group that had metastasectomy and 89.8% in the control group. Five-year overall survival was 63.2% and 51.4%, respectively. Patients who underwent complete metastasectomy had a lower risk of death compared to patients who did not have metastasectomy.

In conclusion, this study found that patients who had complete metastasectomy have a longer overall survival and a longer time to start of targeted therapy compared to patients who did not have metastasectomy. These findings should support removal of metastases in selected patients.

Read more in UroToday here