Dr. Thiel on Surgical Advances for RCC

David D. Thiel, MD, chair, Department of Urology, Mayo Clinic, discusses the advancements in surgical techniques for renal cell carcinoma.

Over the last 15 to 20 years, minimally invasive techniques for radical nephrectomy have been developed, including robotic radical nephrectomy and laparoscopic radical nephrectomy. Those 2 techniques have many advantages over open surgery in terms of recovery time, incision size, and hospital stay, explains Thiel. However, in the setting of metastatic disease, it is common that minimally invasive surgery is not possible.

However, surgery techniques for open kidney surgery has not advanced, and many techniques for open surgery to remove larger tumors were developed by pioneers in the field.