Dr. Albiges on Implementing mRCC Findings into Practice

Laurence Albiges, MD, visiting scientist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses how oncologists can treat patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) based off of findings from a study that looked at the impact of body mass index (BMI) on outcomes of these patients.

Albiges says obesity and being overweight are established risk factors to develop RCC. Conversely, patients that are overweight typically have smaller tumors and have better outcomes.

In deciding how to treat patients with mRCC who are not overweight, Albiges says that researchers need to first uncover what differs kidney cancer from other tumor types, and why BMI has this effect on patients. She questions if it is because the clear cell RCC, said to be the most histological type of cancer, has a high amount of lipid.

When meeting with patients, oncologists should discuss nutritional status. Weight loss in patients should also be prevented, since it may put them at a higher risk for disease progression or risk for treatment side effects.