Histopathologic analysis of stage pT1b kidney neoplasms for optimal surgical margins of nephron-sparing surgery

To evaluate the pathological features and define the optimal surgical margins (SM) of nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) for kidney neoplasms 4-7 cm (stage pT1b) on preoperative imaging.

The retrospective study included 748 patients who were diagnosed stage pT1b renal tumors and underwent either radical nephrectomy (RN, n = 475) or NSS (n = 273) from January 2004 to March 2017. The tumor size, pathological subtype, Fuhrman grade, status of peritumoral pseudocapsule (PC) and tumor multifocality were recorded. The relationship between peritumoral PC and positive SM was calculated statistically by Fisher's exact probability test.

The mean tumor diameter was 5.4 cm (range: 4.1-7.0 cm), 65 (8.7%) cases were discovered with multifocal lesions and 686 (91.7%) were surrounded with peritumoral PC in all 748 specimens. 57 (8.3%) of 686 cases were proved with tumor infiltrated beyond PC [infiltration (+)], and the presence of PC infiltration (+) was significantly correlated with positive SM (p = 0.016). The infiltrative depth of tumor cells into renal parenchyma beyond PC was all limited in 3 mm and the proportion of ≤ 1, 1-2 and 2-3 mm was 21.1% (12/57), 59.6% (34/57) and 19.3% (11/57), respectively.

Our report indicates a 3 mm excisional margin is acceptable to ensure negative SM when operating NSS on stage pT1b kidney neoplasms.