Kidney cancer screening: novel concepts beyond population-level screening

Abstract

Screening for kidney cancer has been identified as a research priority by several independent initiatives. Previous work revealed that the relatively low prevalence of kidney cancer in untargeted asymptomatic individuals hinders the cost-effectiveness and clinical utility of population screening. We, therefore, undertake a comprehensive literature review summarizing novel screening concepts beyond whole population screening, including targeting high-risk populations (to increase disease prevalence), screening for kidney cancer in combination with other abdominal conditions (to reduce costs), or combining both of these approaches. Risk-stratified screening may be undertaken using phenotypic and/or genetic risk scores. Phenotypic risk scores for kidney cancer generally achieve reasonable discrimination (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve between 0.67 and 0.71 in a mixed sex cohort), with the best performing model being based on age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, hypertension diagnosis, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Adding genetic to phenotypic data is costly and provides only a negligible gain in discrimination (an increase in the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.007 from 0.716 to 0.723), meaning it is unlikely to represent a clinically useful strategy. Alternatively, screening for kidney cancer may be combined with other conditions to maximize efficiency, including multicancer early detection tests and combined screening using ultrasonography (concurrently with abdominal aortic aneurysm screening) or abdominal computed tomography (concurrently with lung cancer screening). The latter strategy is most promising and has the highest public acceptability. In summary, we highlight benefits and harms of different screening strategies beyond traditional population screening and offer a comprehensive and contemporary summary of recent advances in this field and future research avenues.