Outcomes of laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for elderly patients with localized renal cell carcinoma

This study was to compare the short- and long-term outcomes of elderly versus middle-aged patients with localized renal cell carcinoma who had undergone laparoscopic radical nephrectomy.

Between January 2012 and January 2018, a total of 54 patients aged 70 years and above with localized renal cell carcinoma (elderly group) underwent laparoscopic radical nephrectomy. The short- and long-term outcomes of these 54 patients were compared with those of 97 middle-aged patients (aged between 55 and 69 years; middle-aged group) who underwent laparoscopic radical nephrectomy due to localized renal cell carcinoma.

The age, Charlson's comorbidity index, and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score were higher in the elderly group than in the middle-aged group. Other preoperative baseline data did not show any statistically significant differences. The differences in short-term outcomes, including operative time, intraoperative blood loss, transfer rate, postoperative 30-day complication rate and severity of complication, and pathological data were not statistically significant between the elderly and middle-aged groups. Long-term follow-up results showed that the tumor recurrence rates were similar in the two groups. Overall and disease-free survival rates were similar in the two groups. Multivariate analysis showed that age was not an independent predictor for overall and disease-free survival rates.

Treatment with laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for elderly patients with localized renal cell carcinoma, could achieve short- and long-term outcomes, similar to those of middle-aged patients.