Partial nephrectomy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma: Where do we stand?

Nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) offers comparable oncologic results, but a lower risk of chronic kidney disease, when compared with radical nephrectomy. However, there are limited data in the literature examining the safety of NSS in the setting of metastatic RCC. To evaluate the feasibility of NSS and impact on cancer-specific survival (CSS) in patients with metastatic disease, we performed a systematic review of the literature. There is ample evidence that NSS is feasible in metastatic RCC, with comparable results in terms of CSS compared with radical cytoreductive nephrectomy.