Zini L, Capitanio U, Perrotte P et al.
University of Montreal Health Center, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Urology 2009;73:342–6.
Editor’s note: Two randomized, controlled trials published in 2001 demonstrated a survival benefit of between 10% and 20% for patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) who received combined treatment with cytoreductive nephrectomy (CRN) and interferon-
α2b (
Lancet 2001;358:966–70,
N Engl J Med 2001;345:1655–9). However, no population-based studies have since been conducted to investigate this further. The relevance of using a population-based study compared with a randomized, controlled trial is that the entry criteria for such trials is usually rigorous, meaning the eligible patients are unlikely to be truly representative of patients with RCC as a whole. In the present study, the authors used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database to investigate patients diagnosed with mRCC between 1988 and 2004 whose tumor size was also recorded. Any unusual histological subtypes were excluded, as were patients with locally advanced cancer and patients who had refused surgery.