Robotic surgery for cT2 kidney cancer: analysis of the National Cancer Database

Robotic surgery for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is increasingly adopted for cT1 disease, but its utilization for cT2 disease remains unexplored. We aimed to characterize the trend in robotic approach for cT2 RCC. The National Cancer Database was queried for patients who were diagnosed with cT2N0M0 RCC from 2010 to 2016 and underwent subsequent radical (RN) or partial (PN) nephrectomy. Analysis of treatment trends was performed and logistic regression (LR) undertaken for predictors of surgical approach. 21,258 patients met inclusion criteria for analysis; 1698 (8%) underwent a PN and 19,560 (92%) underwent RN. Use of robotics in PN increased 346% (12.3–42.6%) and 351% (6.2–21.8%) for RN during the studied time period. Robotic PN or RN was associated with shorter hospital stay compared to non-robotic approaches ( p