Search

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus has caused an important health impact that has affected renal cell carcinoma management, among other urology areas. The high cancellation rate of surgeries, including those related to renal cancer, will cause an inevitable healthcare overload and probably a potential negative impact on its oncological outcomes, especially in locally advanced and metastatic renal cancer. Kidney cancer scenarios are quite different depending on their stage, distinguishing mainly between low priority of localized disease or high priority of locally advanced and metastatic under active treatment. The unknown pandemic duration and possibly fluctuating prevalence of the virus are likely to force an adaptation in the management of renal cell carcinoma among urology and oncology departments, ideally individualized ona case-by-case basis within multidisciplinary units. To this end, we present algorithms and tables regarding renal cell carcinoma management adapted to the COVID-19 period and stratified according to oncological stage, which might be useful for specialists dedicated to this uro-oncology area.

Objective: Renal cryotherapy (RC) is an alternative therapeutic option to partial nephrectomy in elderly patients and/or patients with comorbidities. The technique can be guided by ultrasound, CT and MRI. Although CT is the most used technique, there are no comparative studies. The objective of this study was to review the current status of ultrasound as a guide for the planning and execution of RC., Methods: A systematic review of the literature was carried out in the Pubmed/Medline database following the PRISMA guidelines. We used 42 articles that met the inclusion criteria for the synthesis of the evidence., Results: Ultrasound allows dynamic and real-time monitoring of the entire procedure to guide the biopsy, placement of the cryoprobes, cryoball formation, and early identification of complications. The success rate and recurrences found in the percutaneous renal cryotherapy (PRC) were 97.04% and 1.81%, respectively, with 9.35% complications. The ultrasound during laparoscopic renal cryotherapy (LRC) has been shown to reduce the time spent in localizing the renal mass and also decreases the need for large dissections. On the other hand, contrast-enhanced ultrasound during follow-up shows a concordance with the CT or MRI of 72-96% and no complications have been described associated with its execution., Conclusion: Renal cryotherapy guided by ultrasound is a feasible technique, its main advantage is based on real-time monitoring during the procedure. The PRC presents an acceptable rate of complications and excellent oncological results. The LRC allows a rapid localization of the renal mass and reduces extensive dissections. During follow-up, the use of contrast ultrasound is a safe alternative that has been shown to have a good degree of agreement with respect to CT and MRI.