Urologic Oncology Survey
Positive Surgical Margins Increase Risk of Recurrence after Partial Nephrectomy for High Risk Renal Tumors. Shah PH, Moreira DM, Okhunov Z, Patel VR, Chopra S, Razmaria AA, Alom M, George AK, Yaskiv O, Schwartz MJ, Desai M, Vira MA, Richstone L, Landman J, Shalhav AL, Gill I, Kavoussi LR. J Urol. 2016 Aug;196(2):327-34.

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Abstract

Purpose

The clinical significance of a positive surgical margin after partial nephrectomy remains controversial. The association between positive margin and risk of disease recurrence in patients with clinically localized renal neoplasms undergoing partial nephrectomy was evaluated.

Materials and Methods

A retrospective multi-institutional review of 1,240 patients undergoing partial nephrectomy for clinically localized renal cell carcinoma between 2006 and 2013 was performed. Recurrence-free survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and evaluated as a function of positive surgical margin with the log rank test and Cox models adjusting for tumor size, grade, histology, pathological stage, focality and laterality. The relationship between positive margin and risk of relapse was evaluated independently for pathological high risk (pT2-3a or Fuhrman grades III-IV) and low risk (pT1 and Fuhrman grades I-II) groups.

Results

A positive surgical margin was encountered in 97 (7.8%) patients. Recurrence developed in 69 (5.6%) patients during a median followup of 33 months, including 37 (10.3%) with high risk disease (eg pT2-pT3a or Fuhrman grade III-IV). A positive margin was associated with an increased risk of relapse on multivariable analysis (HR 2.08, 95% CI 1.09-3.97, p=0.03) but not with site of recurrence. In a stratified analysis based on pathological features, a positive surgical margin was significantly associated with a higher risk of recurrence in cases considered high risk (HR 7.48, 95% CI 2.75-20.34, p <0.001) but not low risk (HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.08-4.75, p=0.647).

Conclusions

Positive surgical margins after partial nephrectomy increase the risk of disease recurrence, primarily in patients with adverse pathological features.

Section snippets

Commentary

Controversial conclusions exist in the literature regarding the significance of positive surgical margin in partial nephrectomy specimens. In this article the authors study the recurrence-free survival in 1,240 clinical stage T1-T2N0M0 patients who underwent partial nephrectomy at 4 institutions. The authors assess the association of the margin status with the recurrence in the entire cohort. Then the authors subdivide patients into 870 (70.2%) low risk (pT1 and Fuhrman grade I-II) and 370

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