Less radical tumour surgery can offer better long-term kidney function, study finds
Monday, February 7, 2011 - 09:33
in Health & Medicine
Patients with kidney tumours larger than 4cm are much more likely to enjoy good long-term renal function if they undergo nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) rather than radical nephrectomy (RN). Researchers studied 166 patients for up 19 years, with a median follow up of five-and-a-half years. They found that patients who underwent RN were twice as likely to develop new onsets of chronic kidney disease than those who underwent NSS. The findings are particularly important for older patients because kidney tumours are more common in people in their 60s and 70s and increasing life expectancy means that more elderly patients will seek treatment for this condition.
