Reporting Standards for Percutaneous Thermal Ablation of Renal Cell Carcinoma

WITH the increasing incidence of re-nal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the United States and the increasing proportion of patients with tumors detected at an early stage (1–5), nephron-sparing ap-proaches are becoming more popular. These alternatives to radical nephrec-tomy include partial nephrectomy, wedge resection, and, more recently, in situ thermal ablation. Five-year survival rates after partial nephrectomy are equivalent to those after radical nephrectomy (6–8), sup-porting the rationale of in situ tumor destruction to further reduce morbid