Renal Mass Biopsy Mandate Is Associated With Change in Treatment Decisions

To prevent avoidable treatment and make more informed care decisions about small renal masses, the use of renal mass biopsies has increased since the early 2000s. In April 2017, Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center began requiring biopsies before all percutaneous thermal ablation procedures for renal masses. We aim to determine the effect of this preablation biopsy mandate on small renal mass treatment decisions.

Our study is a retrospective analysis of a prospectively managed database designed to track patients with small renal masses presented at the Kidney Tumor Program from 2000-2020. We separated patients into 2 cohorts (pre- and postmandate) based on the initial encounter date, excluding those from April 2017-April 2018 to allow for implementation of the mandate. We also excluded patients with masses >4 cm.

Overall, we found no significant difference between the pre- and postmandate cohorts, with race as an exception. Implementation of the mandate coincided with an increase in biopsies for both ablation and nonablation treatment pathways (P < .001, P = .01). Renal mass biopsy rates increased in all socioeconomic groups except the lowest quartile. Additionally, Black/Hispanic patients had the highest biopsy rate. We found significant changes in treatment decisions between our cohorts: surgery decreased 24% (P < .001), active surveillance increased 28% (P < .001), and patients with no follow-up decreased 8% (P = .03).

Our data indicate that a preablation renal mass biopsy mandate is associated with the wider use of biopsies for all small renal mass patients, fewer surgical interventions, and an increase in active surveillance.