EU kidney cancer clinical guidelines updated

Updated clinical guidelines published by the European Association of Urologists.

The European Association of Urology (EAU) has announced the latest update to its Clinical Guidelines on Kidney Cancer. In this latest version, the EAU has added further references, which in some cases have led to changes in their recommendations. The EAU lists eighteen modified recommendations in its summary of the changes.

The EAU guidelines have an important impact on kidney cancer diagnosis, treatment and care in the UK. However, in England and Wales, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for producing clinical guidelines for the NHS, as well as recommendations on the use (or not) of individual drugs, and surgical and diagnostic techniques which are mandatory*.

The need for a NICE guideline

The main changes in the EAU guidelines are:

• More targeted approach to biopsy testing of kidney cysts that will reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies
• Enhanced measures to identify hereditary kidney cancer, including  referring people who have hereditary factors to a specialist centre
• Additional recommendations for the treatment of metastatic clear cell kidney cancer with immunotherapy.