[Healthcare Research in Renal Cell Cancer: 7-Year-Data from the VERSUS Study by d-uo]

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for approximately 13.5% of all urological tumors. Healthcare research analyses whether treatment concepts developed in controlled clinical trials and recommended in clinical guidelines are implemented in routine care. This article presents healthcare research data on RCC based on current results from the prospective VERSUS study (VERSorgUngsStudie) by d-uo ("Deutsche Uro-Onkologen", German Uro-Oncologists).

The VERSUS study is a non-interventional, prospective, multicentric study designed to document and descriptively analyze diagnosis, treatment and aftercare of uro-oncological patients.

Out of 31.419 patients currently enrolled in the VERSUS study, 2.526 were diagnosed with RCC. The diagnosis was symptom-driven in 22.7% of cases and detected through screening in 38.1%. Among symptomatic patients, men presented with UICC stage III or IV disease in 38.3% of cases, compared with only 24.8% among women. Tumor stages were distributed as follows: T1a in 35.6%, T1b in 21.5%, T2 in 7.2%, T3 in 11.1%, T4 N0 M0 in 0.2%, T1-4 N1-3 in 1.0%, and T1-4 M1 in 3.6%. The nephrectomy rate in stage T1 was 25.9%. Systemic therapy was administered in 97 evaluable cases (13.1%), with 45.2% receiving adjuvant treatment and 46.4% receiving treatment in the presence of metastatic disease.

Despite providing current and clinically relevant results, the VERSUS study is limited by the restricted depth of available data since it relies on the same dataset as the German cancer registry. To enable a more comprehensive healthcare research, organ-specific cancer registries such as the Urothelial Cancer National Registry (UroNAT) and the Prostate Cancer National Registry (ProNAT) by d-uo are required. These national cancer registries maintained by d-uo are unique in that they comprise all tumor stages. The Renal Cancer National Registry (ReNAT) by d-uo is in preparation and will be a valuable contribution to quality assurance of oncological care in Germany.