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OBJECTIVES To present the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and oncological outcomes in a series of patients with cT1a renal cortical tumours treated with radiofrequency ablation (RFA), a non-ischaemic minimally invasive ablative method, as nephron-sparing surgery gives excellent oncological outcomes and preserves renal function. PATIENTS AND METHODS Healthy (American Society of Anesthesiologists, ASA, I and II) patients with cT1a renal masses were identified, and clinical and radiographic data were reviewed to assess indications, complications, radiological evidence of disease recurrence, and renal function. Changes in GFR were calculated. Radiological recurrence was defined as any new enhancement (>10 Hounsfield units) after absence of enhancement on initial 6-week computed tomography. RESULTS Four patients were ASA I and 59 were ASA II; the median (range) age was 58 (20–84.6) years and the lesion diameter 2.1 (1–4.0) cm. Preoperative needle biopsy was diagnostic in 89% of patients, including 75% diagnostic of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). At a median (range) follow-up of 34 (1.0–80) months the renal preservation rate was 97%. One patient had a nephrectomy for biopsy-confirmed recurrence of RCC at 55 months; a second had a nephrectomy at 24 months for suspected radiographic recurrence, but had no evidence of disease on final pathology. A fifth (20%) of the patients had chronic kidney disease at the time of diagnosis. The median GFR before and after RFA was 76.3 and 74.3 mL/min/m2 (difference 2.0 mL/min/m2). CONCLUSION RFA might be a reasonable treatment choice for the healthy patient, with appropriate informed consent. Intermediate results suggest excellent oncological outcomes and preservation of renal function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Introduction and Objective: Recent advances in magnetic resonance (MR) technology have allowed for high-resolution ex vivo spectroscopy on small, intact tissue samples. We examined the capability of 1H magnetic resonance magic angle spinning (MR-MAS) to correctly characterize post–radiofrequency ablation (RFA) renal biopsies from human samples, compared with standard histology and cross-sectional imaging. Methods: A minimum of two, 18G, percutaneous renal biopsies were obtained from ten biopsy-confirmed renal tumors at a mean 26.6 mo (range, 15–48) post-RFA. All patients were considered free of disease by computed tomography criteria. A portion of each sample was immediately frozen at −80°C for spectroscopy and the remainder used for pathological analysis. 1H MR-MAS was performed blinded with a 14.1-tesla field strength. Prior renal biopsies from nonablated tissue were used as positive controls for the spectral analysis. Concordance between, computed tomography, histology, and MR-MAS was analyzed. All spectroscopy was processed with VNMR software. Results: Histological analysis of all ten post-RFA biopsies demonstrated no cancer or viable tissue. All MR-MAS spectral peaks for each biopsy were consistent with necrosis and, more importantly, indicated an absence of small molecule metabolites characteristic of both normal and malignant renal tissue. Both MR-MAS and histology confirmed, in each case, the conventional computed tomography determination of complete ablation. Conclusions: MR spectroscopy can correctly diagnose the molecular absence of disease in post-RFA tissue biopsies. This proof of principle study warrants in vivo evaluation to confirm the clinical correlates of this modality. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

OBJECTIVE To compare the intermediate-term outcomes of patients with clinical T1a renal tumours who were treated with nephron-sparing surgery by partial nephrectomy (PN), the preferred approach for small (cT1a) renal tumours, or radiofrequency ablation (RFA), recently offered to selected patients as an alternative, less morbid technique. PATIENTS AND METHODS We identified patients with stage T1a renal masses who had ≥ 2 years of follow-up; those with bilateral synchronous or metachronous tumours, metastatic disease at presentation, or a family history of renal cell carcinoma were excluded. From July 1996 to January 2004 110 PNs were identified in our database; 37 patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria had either open (30) or laparoscopic PN (seven) and 40 had either percutaneous (26) or laparoscopic (14) RFA. RESULTS The mean (range) follow-up for the RFA and PN groups was 30 (18–42) and 47 (24–93) months, respectively; the respective mean tumour size was 2.41 and 2.43 cm. There was one incomplete ablation and two local recurrences in the RFA group, and two recurrences in the PN group (one local and one in the contralateral kidney). There were no disease-specific deaths. The overall actuarial disease-free probability for the PN and RFA groups, respectively, was 95.8% and 93.4% ( P = 0.67). CONCLUSIONS This initial 3-year actuarial analysis showed that RFA for cT1a renal tumours has comparable oncological outcomes to PN; however, longer term data are still needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]