{"entity":{"id":"partial-nephrectomy-active-surveillance","kind":"technology","name":"Partial nephrectomy, ablation & active surveillance of small renal masses","aka":[],"tldr":"Most small kidney tumours found on scans grow slowly. Options range from watching them, to freezing or heating them, to removing just the tumour and keeping the kidney.","summary":"Small renal masses (<4 cm) are increasingly found incidentally; 20-30% are benign or indolent. Active surveillance (DISSRM, Canadian registry) shows low metastatic risk with growth-triggered intervention. Partial (nephron-sparing) nephrectomy, usually robotic, is preferred for T1 tumours; radical nephrectomy for larger or central tumours. Percutaneous cryoablation or microwave ablation for small tumours in comorbid patients; renal mass biopsy and SBRT (FASTRACK II) are expanding roles.","status":"standard-of-care","asOf":"2026-09-07","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrectomy","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrectomy"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":["rcc"],"sections":["surgery"],"technologies":["robotic-surgery","thermal-ablation","sbrt"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Nephron preservation reduces chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular mortality; surveillance exploits the slow natural history of most small masses.","strengths":["Kidney function preserved","Avoids overtreatment of benign masses"],"limitations":["No reliable imaging biomarker for aggressive small tumours","Surveillance anxiety and adherence"]},"route":"/technologies/partial-nephrectomy-active-surveillance/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"rcc","kind":"cancer","name":"Renal cell carcinoma","route":"/cancers/rcc/"}],"section":[{"id":"surgery","kind":"section","name":"Surgery & Interventional","route":"/fronts/surgery/"}],"technology":[{"id":"cryoablation-systems","kind":"technology","name":"Cryoablation systems","route":"/technologies/cryoablation-systems/"},{"id":"robotic-surgery","kind":"technology","name":"Robotic & minimally invasive surgery","route":"/technologies/robotic-surgery/"},{"id":"sbrt","kind":"technology","name":"SBRT / SABR (stereotactic radiotherapy)","route":"/technologies/sbrt/"},{"id":"thermal-ablation","kind":"technology","name":"Thermal ablation (RFA, microwave, cryo)","route":"/technologies/thermal-ablation/"}],"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-overdiagnosis","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Overdiagnosis and false alarms","route":"/bottlenecks/b-overdiagnosis/"}],"term":[{"id":"vhl-disease","kind":"term","name":"Von Hippel-Lindau disease","route":"/terms/vhl-disease/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"devices-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Devices and physical therapies roadmap: heat and light → electric fields and focused sound → drug-releasing implants","route":"/roadmaps/devices-roadmap/"},{"id":"surgery-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Surgery roadmap: radical operations → less surgery → no surgery when a drug has done the work","route":"/roadmaps/surgery-roadmap/"}]}}