Treatment for liver metastasis from renal cell carcinoma with computed-tomography-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy (CT-HDRBT): a case series

Purpose To retrospectively analyze the clinical outcome of patients with hepatic metastases from renal cell carcinoma who were treated with computed-tomography-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy (CT-HDRBT). Methods Ten patients (7 men and 3 women; median age 72 ± 7.9 years) with a total number of 16 hepatic metastases from histologically proven renal cell carcinoma were treated with CT-HDRBT after discussing the case in an interdisciplinary tumor conference. All patients had underwent nephrectomy before CT-HDRBT. Three patients had extrahepatic manifestations (2 lung and 1 bone). Six patients had received immunotherapy or targeted therapy before CT-HDRBT. Follow-up included gadoxetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) enhanced MRI two times within 6–8 weeks and after that every 3 months after treatment to evaluate treatment efficacy. Results Mean follow-up time was 21.6 ± 13.7 months. One patient developed local and systemic (pulmonary and osseous) progression after 10.8 months which was treated with targeted therapy and died 20.3 months after CT-HDRBT. None of the remaining nine patients developed local progression or died during the follow-up period. Five patients developed systemic progression (3 pulmonary, 1 osseous and 1 locally at the site of nephrectomy) after an average of 19.7 ± 5.5 months. Conclusions CT-HDRBT is a viable alternative to hepatic resection of liver metastases from renal cell carcinoma in selected patients.