Perfil epidemiológico de pacientes com carcinoma de células renais atendidos no Hospital São Lucas da PUCRS

Abstract

Introduction: New drugs have been developed to treat renal cell carcinoma apparently improving overall survival. Methods: This is an observational study in a retrospective cohort. Five hundred nine patients with renal cell carcinoma treated between 2002 and 2012 in Southern Brazil were divided in two groups: patients receiving public health system care and participants in clinical research protocols. Data collected from medical records were: socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, type of surgery and pathological information. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square, Fisher exact, Student's t tests; the survival curve was according to Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression. Significance was considered at p<0.05. Results: Patients were male (68.6%), Caucasian (94.9%), and had no family history of cancer (91.6%). Most cases were submitted to nephrectomy and the most frequent histological type was clear cell carcinoma (90.7%). Global median survival for all patients was 50.2 (45.0-54.7) months. Global survival was different between patients enrolled in clinical trials [142.1 months (95% CI: 94.1- 152.6)] and those treated in the public health system [44.9 months (95% CI: 39.5 - 49.1)] (p<0.001). The unadjusted hazard ratio was 0.24 (0.15-0.37). After adjustment for gender, age, smoking at the time of diagnosis, body mass index, skin color, patient origin, ECOG score, histology and clinical stage, hazard ratio was 0.26 (0.13-0.55) (p<0.001). Conclusion: Renal cell carcinoma patients treated in clinical research protocols have longer survival when compared to patients managed within the public health care system in Brazil. This finding strongly suggests that, in this setting, participation in clinical research protocols should be encouraged.