According to a study published online in The Journal of Urology, researchers have found that children and adolescents with renal cell carcinoma present with more advanced disease than those aged 21 to 30 years with renal cell carcinoma.
For the study, researchers sought to identify differences in renal cell carcinoma presentation and outcomes of children, adolescents, and young adults with the disease. They identified 3,658 patients less than 30 years of age who were diagnosed with chromophobe, clear cell, papillary, and renal cell carcinoma NOS (unclassified) between 1998 and 2011 from the National Cancer Database.
Of those, 161 were <15 years old (children) and 337 were 15-21 years old (adolescents). Results showed that younger patients were more likely than those aged 21 to 30 to be diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma NOS and papillary renal cell carcinoma (P < 0.001).
They also found that younger patients were more likely to present with higher staged disease (P < 0.0001), higher grade disease (P < 0.0001), and bigger tumors (P < 0.0001). Furthermore, younger patients were more likely than patients aged 21 to 30 to undergo lymph node resection (P < 0.0001) and receive chemotherapy as first-line therapy for the disease.
The researchers also identified various risk factors associated with mortality in patients under 21 years of age with renal cell carcinoma, including stage 4 at diagnosis, government insurance status, non-chromophobic pathology, and not opting for surgery as first-line therapy for the disease.
Children and adolescents with renal cell carcinoma present with more advanced disease.
In this study, authors sought to compare the presentation and outcomes of young patients with RCC and they also determined risk factors associated with mortality in RCC patients <21 years of age.
Children and adolescents with RCC present with more advanced disease than those 21–30 years old. In patients <21, mortality was associated with the non–chromophobe histological subtype, stage 4 disease, government insurance, and not undergoing surgery as first line therapy.