AUA Guideline: Full Kidney Removal Not Necessary for All Kid...( Early-stage renal masses should be tr...),Health

Early-stage renal masses should be treated with nephron-sparing approaches when possible

LINTHICUM, Md., April 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Radical nephrectomy (complete removal of the affected kidney) is not the best treatment for most small kidney tumors because it puts patients at risk for chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. Nephron-sparing treatments, such as partial nephrectomy, thermal ablation and active surveillance, minimize these risks and are viable options for patients with early-stage kidney tumors, according to a new clinical guideline issued by the American Urological Association (AUA). The guideline was released on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 during the Association's Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago.

This is the first time that the AUA has released official guidelines for the management of patients with kidney cancer. This guideline is focused on the management of patients with early-stage renal masses, which has become controversial in the past few years. Guideline Panel Co-Chair Steven C. Campbell, MD, PhD, will present the guideline to the media on April 28, 2009 at 12:30 p.m. in the AUA Press Suite, located at the Hyatt Regency McCormick in Chicago.

Detection of clinical stage 1 (<7.0 cm) renal masses has increased in frequency and is now a common clinical scenario for the practicing urologist. Of these tumors, 20 percent are benign, 60 percent are indolent kidney cancer, and only about 20 percent are potentially aggressive kidney cancer at the time of diagnosis. Kidney cancer is the most lethal of the commonly diagnosed urologic malignancies, but small, clinically confined tumors are very heterogeneous, and most do not require radical nephrectomy.

"There are now several options available for the treatment of early stage kidney cancer," said Steven Campbell, MD, PhD, co-chair of the panel that developed the Guideline. "Radical nephrectomy is curren
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