Natural history of treated and untreated renal oncocytoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Current guidelines recommend active surveillance, surgery, and ablation all as acceptable management strategies for renal oncocytoma, but there is growing concern about overtreatment. Our aim was to report the natural history of treated and untreated renal oncocytoma to inform clinical guidelines and shared decision-making.

A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). We systematically reviewed MEDLINE, EMBASE, CENTRAL and Clinicaltrials.gov from inception to 18 August 2023. Studies that reported outcomes during follow-up for adult patients with treated and untreated histologically confirmed renal oncocytoma were included. The Joanna Briggs Institute tool was used to assess risk of bias for included studies. We present a narrative review and meta-analysis.

There are no reports of distant metastases or disease-related death for oncocytoma on active surveillance. Most oncocytomas on surveillance show limited growth (<2 mm/year) and minimal renal function decline (-1 mL/min/1.73m²/year). A significant minority (14%) transition to active treatment, most often for tumour growth. Concordance between biopsy and surgical pathology was high (89%). Metastatic oncocytoma and disease-related death after treatment was negligible, and exclusively in reports using historic diagnostic criteria defined prior to the World Health Organisation 1998 classification, and therefore likely including eosinophilic renal cell carcinomas.

Active surveillance of oncocytoma is oncologically safe and allows patients to avoid the risk of morbidity and mortality with treatment. Imaging surveillance after active treatment can be safely omitted. The literature would benefit from prospective cohort studies of oncocytomas on surveillance, reporting surveillance protocols, and clinical outcomes including reasons for transition to active treatment.