Prognostic comparison of partial and radical nephrectomy for T1b renal cell carcinoma with SEER database analysis

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the most common tumors of the urinary system. Herein, we examined the epidemiology and prognostic factors of RCC and investigated the prognosis of partial nephrectomy (PN) compared to radical nephrectomy (RN) for T1b RCC over the past 20 years. We obtained data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-17(2000-2021) database for epidemiological and survival analysis. The age-adjusted incidence of RCC per 100,000 persons significantly increased from 9.3 to 13.2 (annual percent change [APC]: 1.3%, 95% CI: 1.0-1.7). The mortality also increased from 0.8 to 4.3 (APC: 4.1%, 95% CI: 3.2-5.0). The incidence of RCC patients who underwent PN significantly increased from 0.9 to 4.7(APC:6.4%, 95% CI:4.9-7.9). Moreover, mortality for patients who underwent PN increased from 0 to 0.3% (APC: 13.0%, 95% CI: 11.4-14.6%), while mortality for those who underwent RN increased from 0.3 to 2.3% (APC: 3.6%, 95% CI: 2.2-5.0%). The multivariate Cox model indicated that PN was an independent predictor of good prognosis for both ACM and CSM, before and after propensity score matching. In addition, Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that the RN group had a higher risk of both ACM and CSM. In the present study, we demonstrated that both the incidence and mortality of RCC have increased over the past 20 years. The number of RCC patients undergoing PN has also risen significantly in recent years. Our findings indicate that PN confers a survival benefit compared to RN.