Comparison of Clinical Outcomes between Robot-Assisted Partial Nephrectomy and Cryoablation in Elderly Patients with Renal Cancer

Advances in imaging technologies have increased the opportunities for treating small-diameter renal cell carcinomas (RCCs) in the elderly. This retrospective study based on real-world clinical practice compared perioperative complications, preoperative and postoperative renal function, recurrence-free survival, and overall survival in elderly patients with RCC who had undergone robot-assisted partial nephrectomy (RAPN) or percutaneous cryoablation (PCA). A total of 99 patients (aged ≥70 years), including 50 and 49 patients in the RAPN and PCA groups, respectively, were analyzed. In the entire cohort, Clavien–Dindo grade ≥3 complications occurred in only one patient who had undergone RAPN. Renal function was significantly lower in the postoperative period than in the preoperative period in both the RAPN and PCA groups. The recurrence-free survival and overall survival rates were worse in the PCA group than in the RAPN group, albeit not significantly. RAPN was considered a safe and effective method for treating RCCs in elderly patients. Moreover, although the recurrence rate was slightly higher in the PCA group than in the RAPN group, PCA was deemed to be a safe alternative, especially for treating patients in whom general anesthesia poses a high risk.