Urological Malignancies Virtual Institute researchers publish new data demonstrating the prevalence of kidney cancer in high-risk individuals

In a European Urology Oncology paper, UM member Sabrina H Rossi and colleagues use data from the Yorkshire Kidney Screening Trial (YKST) and the Yorkshire Lung Screening Trial (YLST) to report the first contemporary estimates of the prevalence of kidney cancer in high-risk individuals.

YKST studied the feasibility of adding kidney cancer screening within a targeted lung cancer screening trial (YLST). Seventeen histologically confirmed cases of kidney cancer were found by thoracic CT in YLST, in a population of 6,650 patients, a prevalence rate of 2.6 in 1,000. Adding abdominal CT in YKST found an additional ten cases in 4,019 individuals, a rate of 2.5 per 1,000. Combining findings from thoracic and abdominal CT, the overall prevalence of screen-detected KC was 4.1 per 1,000 patients.

Previous analyses estimated 1-3 cases per 1,000 patients screened in an unselected, asymptomatic population. However, this figure was derived from two-decade old data and kidney cancer rates are increasing. As targeted lung cancer screening is rolled out nationally, incidental findings of kidney cancer are likely to increase, therefor understanding the prevalence of kidney cancer among this high-risk population is vital for service planning. Additionally, reporting the prevalence of kidney cancer detected by abdominal CT screening in YKST will enable researchers to more accurately plan future research trials assessing kidney cancer screening.

Lead author Sabrina H Rossi said, “YKST showed that adding an abdominal scan to the lung screening programme is cost-effective, the analysis we’ve done here is necessary for planning funding for services to cope with the kidney cancer cases that a national screening programme would find and to plan future research on this topic.”

Read the full paper here.