Venous tumor thrombus consistency: is it a prognostic factor of survival for patients with renal cell carcinoma?

Objectives: To evaluate whether venous tumor thrombus (VTT) consistency is a risk factor for the patient’s prognosis with renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Materials and methods: A total of 190 RCC patients with VTT, who were treated at Department of Urology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, were retrospectively analyzed in this study. The baseline clinical characteristics, postoperative outcomes, and pathological findings were analyzed. Tumor thrombus was classified as solid and friable based on their respective characteristics. Survival curves were estimated using the Kaplan–Meier survival curve analysis, and univariable and multivariable cox proportional hazard regression models were used. Results: Among the total 190 patients included in this study, 145 (76.3%) patients had solid VTT, and 45 (23.7%) patients had friable VTT in their renal veins and inferior vena cava (IVC). There were no significant differences in the age, gender, BMI, symptoms, complex diseases, tumor side, tumor size, TNM stage, Mayo stage, tumor grade, sarcomatous differentiation, pelvic invasion, and sinus fat invasion of patients. Solid VTT consistency was more likely to have a capsule as compared to those with friable VTT (P= 0.007). Kaplan–Meier survival curve analysis demonstrated no statistically significant differences in the overall survival (OS) (P= 0.973) and progression-free survival (PFS) (P= 0.667) of patients. Moreover, VTT consistency was not associated with OS (P= 0.706) of PFS (P= 0.504) in multivariate cox regression analysis. Conclusions: RCC VTT consistency was not a prognostic risk factor for predicting the OS and PFS of patients.