Open Access

RESIDENT’S CORNER

Prolonged natural progression from localized to symptomatic renal cell carcinoma

Steve Sterious¹, Marc C. Smaldone¹, Elizabeth Plimack², Robert G. Uzzo¹, Daniel Canter³, Alexander Kutikov¹

1 Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Urological Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
2 Department of Medical Oncology, Emory School of Medicine, Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
3 Department of Urology, Emory School of Medicine, Winship Cancer Institute, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Address correspondence to Dr. Alexander Kutikov, Division of Urological Oncology, Department of Surgical Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, 333 Cottman Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111 USA

Canadian Journal of Urology 2012, 19(6), 6578-6580.

Abstract

Surgical excision is the gold standard therapy for clinically localized renal masses. Nevertheless, prognostication of the natural history of untreated renal cell carcinoma (RCC) remains a clinical challenge. While active surveillance (AS) has emerged as a viable treatment option in select patients with localized tumors and significant competing mortality risks, long term follow up data to assess the risk of disease progression are limited. We present a case of a localized, clinical stage T2 renal mass progressing to regional and systemic disease over 6 years, demonstrating that kinetics of disease progression may be prolonged and are yet to be fully understood.

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Keywords

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