Age--an independent prognostic factor of clinical outcome in renal malignancies: results of a large study over two decades.

PURPOSE: Age has been linked to outcome in renal cancer patients, but mainly in North American cohorts. In this study, we hypothesized that age is correlated with metastasis and cancer-specific survival in a German cohort regardless of types of treatments.
METHODS: A total of 1,538 patients treated for renal malignancies between 1991 and 2010 were evaluated. Mean age and median age are 61.9 ± 11.6 and 62.6 years. Clinicopathologic [tumor type, size, grade, stage and treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy)] and outcome parameters (metastasis and survival) were examined for an association with age using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazard model, and Kaplan-Meier plots.
RESULTS: Age was associated with stage, metastasis, treatment, cancer-specific and overall mortality (p < 0.01). The metastasis-free and cancer-free survival rates for patients >63 years were lower than those for patients ≤63 years (p < 0.0001). In a multivariate analysis, age was an independent prognostic factor of metastasis, cancer-specific and overall mortality (p < 0.0001) even when data were stratified in different decades and treatment was included as one of the parameters. Patients >63 years of age had 29-35% higher risk of metastasis and cancer-specific mortality than younger patients. Median metastasis-free and cancer-specific survival for patients >63 years of age (months: 84.4; 70.3) was ~50% shorter than in patients ≤63 years (months: 151; 144.6).
CONCLUSIONS: This large study shows that, despite advances in surgical and non-surgical treatment modalities over the two decades, age is an independent prognostic indicator of metastasis and cancer-specific mortality in renal cancer patients. Patients >63 years have ~30% increased risk for metastasis and ~50% shorter cancer-specific survival.