Renal & Urology NewsLymphovascular Invasion Ups Mortality Risk in Kidney Cancer Surgery Cases

In a study of patients having surgery for renal cell carcinoma, those who had lymphovascular invasion had a considerably lower 5-year overall survival rate (65% vs. 86%).

Patients undergoing surgery for nonmetastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) with lymphovascular invasion (LVI) face a significantly higher mortality risk, according to recent research led by Firas Abdollah, MD, at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

HCN Medical Memo
These recent findings underscore the importance of considering LVI status in postoperative patient counseling and future clinical trial designs for nonmetastatic RCC. The significantly lower OS rates and elevated mortality risks in patients with LVI should guide both clinical decisions and patient discussions.

Key Points:

• The 5-year overall survival rate (OS) for patients with LVI was 65% compared to 86% in the no-LVI group.
• Subgroup analysis revealed 5-year OS rates among pN0, pN1, and pNx patients with LVI were 64%, 31%, and 69%, respectively, versus 78%, 41%, and 87% in those without LVI.
• Patients with LVI had a 36% increased risk of death, even after adjusting for multiple variables.

Additional Points

• The study involved 95,783 patients from the National Cancer Database who underwent either partial or radical nephrectomy.
• The average age of the patients was 59 years and 72.2% were at pT1 stage.
• The mean follow-up duration was 39 months and 9% of the patients had LVI.

“Our findings are the first, to our best knowledge, to illustrate the clear detrimental impact of LVI on OS in surgically treated RCC patients.”
– Firas Abdollah, MD, Vattikuti Urology Institute for Outcomes Research, Analytics, and Evaluation, Henry Ford Hospital

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