Surgical Management of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a relatively rare malignancy, although the incidence appears to be increasing. RCC remains resistant to chemotherapy and curative therapy is limited to surgical resection of localized tumors. Recently there has been an expansion of the indications for nephron sparing approaches to patients with localized tumors. Likewise, the management of locally advanced tumors and the indications for cytoreductive surgery in the setting of metastatic RCC have been clarified by recent studies. Herein, we discuss the role of surgery for the management of localized and metastatic RCC.