The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published new guidance on Kidney cancer: diagnosis and management. This guideline covers diagnosing and managing renal cell carcinoma in people aged 18 and over.
The guidance aims to improve care by helping healthcare professionals offer people the right treatments and support, taking into account the person’s individual preferences.
The guidance aims to improve care by helping healthcare professionals offer people the right treatments and support, taking into account the person’s individual preferences.
The most important changes to practice in this guideline are:
- All people with renal cell carcinoma should have support from a clinical nurse specialist throughout their care
- Healthcare professionals should identify people with suspected renal cell carcinoma who could benefit from having a biopsy and discuss this with them to help them make an informed decision
- Active surveillance, thermal ablation and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy should be considered for managing localised small renal masses when surgery is not needed, possible or suitable.
The guideline also provides a number of visual summaries, including summaries on diagnosis and management of renal cell carcinoma and on management of localised renal cell carcinoma.
The document highlights that for recommendations on identifying renal cell carcinoma in primary care, or when to refer people to a specialist, clinicians should refer to NICE’s guideline on recognition and referral for suspected cancer.
