Doctors from Toulouse carried out an ablation outside the body of several tumors located on a kidney, before replacing the organ in the patient’s body.
- In 2018, approximately 15,000 new cases of kidney cancer were diagnosed in France.
- Smoking, overweight and obesity are among the risk factors.
It’s a world first and it’s a success! In Toulouse, a team from the CHU removed tumors located on a kidney outside the body of a patient using robot-assisted technology. The operation allowed the patient to return to a normal life.
10 tumors located on both kidneys
In October 2021, the 68-year-old woman was diagnosed with kidney cancer: the doctors identified six tumors, of low aggressiveness, located on the left kidney, and four on the right kidney. “She was treated in interventional radiology for percutaneous thermal ablation of both kidneys: ablation of tumors by a heat source introduced through the skin.specifies the Toulouse University Hospital in a communicated. The various controls, carried out by MRI and scanner, showed a total disappearance of the tumors on the right kidney, but the persistence of three tumors on the level of the left kidney. These were too difficult to access to be properly treated. In addition, the ureter, the channel that connects the kidneys to the bladder, very close to tumors, was damaged during the operation. “A diversion of urine through the skin (nephrostomy) was necessary”says the document.
Kidney cancer: an innovative and minimally invasive technique
As the three remaining tumors continued to grow, the doctors proposed using a new technique.”consisting in extracting the kidney and performing an ablation of the three tumors hitherto inaccessible in the ‘back table’, that is to say on a table next to the patient“. In a second step, the kidney was reimplanted, and connected to the iliac artery and the ureter. “Robotic assistance enabled minimally invasive surgery where conventional surgery would have been cumbersome and risky“, observe the authors of the press release. But above all it has allowed the sexagenarian to find a daily life “normal“: thanks to the operation, she no longer needs the nephrostomy for the evacuation of her urine.”This exceptional robot-assisted surgery, which made it possible to treat the tumor cells while preserving the kidney, avoided permanent disability for the patient who would have had to live with a permanent nephrostomy“, underlines the document.
How is kidney cancer treated?
Today, several techniques are used to treat kidney cancer. Surgery is reserved for localized cancers. “In the case of cancers that present metastases, the treatment is based on anti-cancer drugs (targeted therapies, immunotherapy), associated or not with surgery.“, specifies theNational Cancer Institute. In recent years, several innovative techniques have been developed such as radiofrequency treatment, which is based on the application of electric current in the tumor with a needle, or cryoablation, where a needle sends intense cold on cancerous cells. The method used by specialists at the Toulouse University Hospital now completes the therapeutic arsenal. “This promising medical strategy opens up new possibilities in the treatment of multiple and complex kidney lesions“, notes the press release from the Toulouse University Hospital.