Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) continues to be one of the deadliest forms of urological cancer, despite advances in diagnosis and treatment over the past two decades.
The year 2024 began with a very important international discovery in the field of renal cancer: the use of adjuvant therapy in patients with aggressive forms of kidney cancer extends the survival of these patients.
But how do we distinguish patients who might benefit from it, from those who might, instead, suffer the side effects of the therapy, without experiencing its benefits?
The European Association of Urology (EAU) recommends the use of precise prognostic models in order to identify those patients at high risk of disease recurrence for whom the administration of adjuvant therapy would keep the disease under control for a longer period of time and to whom it would prolong survival, according to the very latest data.
However, the accuracy of these prognostic models varies widely, and only some of them would be truly useful in correctly classifying these patients.
Our work, therefore, enabled the identification of the most accurate prognostic models to be applied according to tumor characteristics, so that we could correctly classify patients and optimize the selection of candidates for adjuvant therapy, identifying those who would really benefit.
Giuseppe Rosiello1, Alessandro Larcher1, Giuseppe Fallara1, Cristina Giancristoforo1, Alberto Martini1, Chiara Re1, Francesco Cei1, Giacomo Musso1, Zhe Tian2, Pierre I. Karakiewicz2, Alexandre Mottrie 3,4, Roberto Bertini1, Andrea Salonia1, Andrea Necchi1, Daniele Raggi1, Alberto Briganti1, Francesco Montorsi1, Umberto Capitanio11 Department of Urology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy; Division of Experimental Oncology/Unit of Urology, URI, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, Milan, Italy.
2 Cancer Prognostics and Health Outcomes Unit, Division of Urology, University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
3 Department of Urology, Onze-Lieve-Vrouwziekenhuis, Aalst, Belgium.
4 ORSI Academy, Melle, Belgium.
