Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Surgical treatment for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has drastically evolved for the past 30 years. However, survival outcomes of RCC according to times have not been fully elucidated, especially in the real-world setting. This study aimed to assess the survival improvement over time in RCC treated with nephrectomy by analyzing a longitudinal cohort using propensity score matching (PSM). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 960 patients with RCC who underwent radical or partial nephrectomy between 1981 and 2018. Patients were divided into two groups according to the time of surgery (1981-1999 vs. 2000-2018). Using PSM, overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS), and recurrence-free survival (RFS) were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: Overall, 255 and 705 patients underwent surgery in the earlier (1981-1999) and recent (2000-2018) eras, and PSM derived a matched cohort of 466 patients (233 patients per each group). All patients in the earlier era cohort received open surgeries, whereas about a half (47.4%) of patients in the recent era cohort received minimally-invasive (laparoscopic/robotic) surgeries. After PSM, 137 (29.4%) patients developed recurrence, 105 (22.5%) died of RCC, and 113 (24.2%) died from other causes, with a median follow-up period of 90 months. The recent era cohort had significantly longer OS, CSS, and RFS than the earlier era cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with RCC treated in the recent era (2000-2018) showed significantly longer survival than those treated in the earlier era (1981-1999). The improved survival might be attributable to the prevalence of minimally-invasive (laparoscopic/robotic) surgeries.