Partial versus radical nephrectomy for T1b-2N0M0 renal tumors: A propensity score matching study based on the SEER database.

Controversy continues on the tailored therapy for patients with larger renal cell carcinoma (RCC). We investigated whether partial nephrectomy (PN) can improve patient prognosis compared to radical nephrectomy (RN) and the indications for each approach in patients with T1b-2N0M0 RCC.A total of 9907 patients were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database from 2004 to 2012. Propensity scores were used to balance the selection bias of undergoing PN. Overall (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of patients undergoing PN and RN were compared. Cases were subdivided to investigate the advantages of each procedure.Overall, 1418 (14.3%) patients underwent PN. Before matching, PN led to better OS and CSS than RN in both Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox regression (each p