There are two main types of surgery for kidney cancer:
- The first is radical nephrectomy for kidney cancer, which is often referred to by patients as having the entire kidney removed;
- The second type of surgery is a procedure that preserves the kidney unit, also called partial nephrectomy, which is simply removing the tumor along with some of the surrounding normal kidney tissue while preserving most of the functional kidney tissue.
For both stage Ia and stage Ib renal cancer patients, recurrence rates after radical or partial nephrectomy are low, and long-term outcomes are not significantly different as confirmed by long postoperative follow-up. Therefore, for stage I renal tumors there is every chance to undergo kidney unit preservation surgery. However, the feasibility score of renal unit preserving surgery must be done before surgery, mainly by the site of tumor, size, whether it is endogenous, and the distance from the renal hilum and blood vessels, to determine the ease of renal unit preserving surgery and the risk of complications.