Laparoscopic treatment of renal cancer in children: A multicentric study and review of oncologic and surgical complications

Abstract Objective The aim was to report a multicentric study with a longer follow-up to evaluate the laparoscopic radical nephrectomy in children with renal cancer. Material and methods This was a retrospective multicentric study, from October 2005 to January 2012, of children who underwent a laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for small renal malignant tumors. Results Seventeen children were included in this study. Sixteen underwent chemotherapy before surgery according the SIOP (Societe Internationale d'Oncologie Pediatrique) protocol and one was treated by surgery only for a carcinoma. All except one could be treated by laparoscopy; the biggest tumoral size was 8 cm. The median hospital stay was 3 days (2–10). The pathologic examination showed 15 Wilms' tumors, one clear cell sarcoma and one TFE3 renal cell carcinoma. With a median follow-up of 42 months (range 12 and 77 months) after laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, 15 children had no oncological complications (port site or local recurrence, pulmonary metastasis) and one had a local recurrence without intraoperative tumoral rupture. The child with TFE3 renal cell carcinoma died 4 years after surgery from brain and lung metastases without local recurrence. No small bowel obstruction occurred. Conclusions Radical nephrectomy in children for Wilms' tumor or other renal cancer can be safely performed laparoscopically and our indications can be summarized, for trained laparoscopic surgeons, by small tumors under about 8 cm diameter, especially without crossing the lateral edge of the vertebra on the CT scan at the time of surgery.