RESUMO
Introduction: Digestive metastases (DMs) from renal cell cancer (RCC) are rare. Over the past decade, the overall survival of metastatic RCC (mRCC) has been improved by tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immune checkpoint inhibitors. The main objective of this study was to assess the incidence of metastases of the digestive tract in this new field of treatment. The secondary objectives were to evaluate the clinical characteristics, prognosis, treatments used for DMs, and median time between the diagnosis of RCC or mRCC and DMs. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of data collected from all patients with mRCC between 2007 (the time of TKI was a standard of care) and 2019 was carried out at the Paoli-Calmettes Institute (Marseille, France). Computer research software using artificial intelligence (ConSoRe®) was used to identify patients and assess their characteristics. Results: Between January 2007 and December 2019, 11 out of 660 (1.6%) mRCC patients had metastases of the gastrointestinal tract. The median age was 62 years. Of the 11 patients, 81.8% experienced digestive bleeding or anemia. Only 2 patients were asymptomatic. The metastases were mainly duodenal (50%) and gastric (41.6%). The median time from cancer diagnosis and from metastatic disease to gastrointestinal metastasis was 4.3 years (3 months-19.2 years) and 2.25 years (0 days-10.2 years), respectively. Local treatment was performed in 38.5% of cases by endoscopy (60%), surgery (20%) and radiotherapy (40%) with success rates of 33, 100, and 50%, respectively. Etiological treatment was modified following the discovery of DM in 84.6% of the cases. The median survival was 1 year from the diagnosis of DM (13 days-9.4 years). Two patients were still alive 2.9 and 9.4 years after the diagnosis of DM. Conclusion: This is the largest monocentric retrospective analysis of DM in patients with RCC. It seems to be a rare and late event in the course of the disease. Local treatment combined with systemic treatment could improve survival. In the context of prolonged survival with the new based immunotherapy treatments in mRCC, we suggest that unexplained anemia or persistent digestive symptoms could be explored by endoscopy.
RESUMO
AIM: To evaluate the ability of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) elastography to distinguish benign from malignant pancreatic masses and lymph nodes. METHODS: A multicenter study was conducted and included 222 patients who underwent EUS examination with assessment of a pancreatic mass (n = 121) or lymph node (n = 101). The classification as benign or malignant, based on the real time elastography pattern, was compared with the classification based on the B-mode EUS images and with the final diagnosis obtained by EUS-guided fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) and/or by surgical pathology. An interobserver study was performed. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of EUS elastography to differentiate benign from malignant pancreatic lesions are 92.3% and 80.0%, respectively, compared to 92.3% and 68.9%, respectively, for the conventional B-mode images. The sensitivity and specificity of EUS elastography to differentiate benign from malignant lymph nodes was 91.8% and 82.5%, respectively, compared to 78.6% and 50.0%, respectively, for the B-mode images. The kappa coefficient was 0.785 for the pancreatic masses and 0.657 for the lymph nodes. CONCLUSION: EUS elastography is superior compared to conventional B-mode imaging and appears to be able to distinguish benign from malignant pancreatic masses and lymph nodes with a high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. It might be reserved as a second line examination to help characterise pancreatic masses after negative EUS-FNA and might increase the yield of EUS-FNA for lymph nodes.