A recent study, published in the European Journal of Cancer, looked at the prognosis of metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients with bone metastases treated at the Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus in France from 1992 to 2016.

Of the 1750 patients diagnosed with RCC, 300 (17%) patients had bone metastases. Median overall survival for these patients was 23.2 months, consistent with previously reported data.

The study showed that clear-cell RCC and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSKCC) risk group were significantly associated with worse prognosis, and MSKCC risk group was also a predictor of overall survival. In addition, the number of bone metastases and whether they were removed with surgery are important prognostic factors for RCC patients with bone metastases.

The researchers suggest that when a patient presents with a solitary bone metastasis and no other metastases in other parts of the body at the initial diagnosis of RCC, bone surgery should be considered to achieve local tumour control and likely increase overall survival.

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