PCA vs Partial Nephrectomy for cT1b Renal Tumors

PERCUTANEOUS cryoablation (PCA) offers distant oncologic outcomes comparable to partial nephrectomy (PN) for cT1b renal tumors, although PCA is associated with a higher local recurrence rate, recent study findings suggest.

A team led by Takafumi Yanagisawa, MD, PhD, of The Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan, retrospectively analyzed data from 119 patients who underwent PCA (29 patients) or PN (90 patients) for cT1b renal tumors. The median follow-up was 43 months in the PCA group and 36.5 months in the PN group. The investigators noted residual unablated tumor and local recurrence in 2 and 4 patients, respectively, in the PCA group and local recurrence in 4 PN patients. In an inverse probability weighting (IPW) analysis, PCA was significantly associated with worse local recurrence-