Background: Renal cell carcinoma accounts for approximately 3% of adult malignancies and over 90% of primary renal tumors. Recurrence rates for patients with locally advanced renal cell carcinoma (LARCC) remain high.
Methods: The authors review literature regarding prognostic factors, potential biomarkers, surgical strategies, and adjuvant therapy trials for patients with LARCC.
Results: Molecular tumor markers may improve existing staging systems for predicting prognosis. Surgery is the best initial treatment for most patients with clinically localized renal tumors, although complete surgical resection can be challenging for patients with large tumors, bulky regional lymph node involvement, or inferior vena cava tumor thrombus. Significant recurrence rates for patients with LARCC undergoing nephrectomy indicate the presence of undetected micrometastases at the time of surgery. Adjuvant radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy have been ineffective. Other trials of adjuvant therapy are ongoing.
Conclusions: Aggressive surgical resection alone for LARCC is not sufficient to prevent disease recurrence in a significant number of patients. Adjuvant therapies are needed to improve cancer-specific survival.