New challenges in kidney cancer management: integration of surgery and novel therapies

Despite early renal carcinoma diagnosis is more frequent nowadays, ~25-30 % of patients have metastatic disease at presentation and another ~30 % develop recurrent or metastatic disease after radical treatment for localized disease. In recent years, treatment of renal carcinoma is increasing in complexity due to the inclusion of a number of effective systemic treatments prolonging survival and increasing the therapeutic strategies for tumor debulking, or even achieving surgical complete responses and prolonged disease-free intervals. Initial multimodal approaches with immunotherapeutic agents are now being validated in patients treated with the new-targeted agents. Patients are now able to receive an optimal therapeutic strategy seeking a longer survival with an acceptable life quality and avoiding unnecessary comorbidities. In this context and as an initial therapeutic approach, it is imperative to promote patients' selection with established prognostic models within a multidisciplinary team to assess the recommendation of a cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN), metastasectomy, and/or systemic treatment. In the context of mRCC, when feasible and in patients with favorable prognostic factors, the strategy should be to consider a CN or metastasectomy for tumor debulking in order to achieve free intervals of prolonged disease. By contrast, it is recommended to evaluate whether to perform a biopsy for histological diagnosis without nephrectomy in the following situations: high surgical risk, bulky metastatic disease or in specific sites (brain or liver) or ECOG PS 3/4. The following review covers from initial to recent studies on the integration of systemic treatment and surgery in the context of metastatic disease for an optimal multimodal management in renal carcinoma.