Tumour in the solitary kidney – Management

• Renal cell carcinoma can occur in a patient with a solitary kidney
• The current recommendation is to do partial nephrectomy as long as sufficient margin of normal tissue is available
• This helps to avoid the requirement of lifelong hemodialysis
• Partial nephrectomy cannot be done in those with a large tumour or multiple small tumours throughout the kidney
• Survival rates of upto 90% have been reported in stage I disease and upto 76% for stage III tumours with conservative surgery

Reference:
Diagnosis and Management of Cancer By Ashok Mehta, S.C. Bansal