Assessment of the effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation as a technique for destroying small renal tumors in patients older than 70

INTRODUCTION: During the past few decades, the percentage of older people in the population has been steadily growing due to the tendency of extended life expectancy. The efficacy of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) and tumor enucleoresection (TE) in the treatment of selected older patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) T1aN0M0 sized ≤4.0 cm has been a popular topic in many recent studies. The aim of this study was to access the effectiveness of radiofrequency ablation in patients older than 70 with T1aN0M0 RCC. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 86 patients aged 70–84 with histologically confirmed solitary kidney tumors T1aN0M0 who underwent RFA (n = 39) and TE (n = 47) were been included in this study. The patients were assigned to groups based on the impact of their comorbidities. Rockwood’s Clinical Frailty Scale Score (FS) and Charlson Comorbidity Index score (CCI) were used to separate fit from unfit older patients. The RFA group was characterized by an FS and CCI of 4–5 while the TE group had scores of ≤3. Five-year disease-specific survival (DSS), 5-yrs overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) were considered as criteria of treatment. RESULTS: The 5-yr DSS in the RFA group was 97.4% vs. 95.7% in the TE group (p >0.05), while 5-yr OS was 74.4% vs. 80.9% (p <0.05) and RFS – 94.9% vs. 93.6% (p >0.05) respectively. Functioning of the operated kidneys did not deteriorate at the 6(th) and 12(th) month after RFA/TE as assessed by radioisotope renography. CONCLUSIONS: In patients over 70 years of age, percutaneous RFA might be considered as an effective option for the successful treatment of T1aN0M0 RCC, as it preserves the functioning of the treated kidney and has oncological outcomes similar to TE.