Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-14-2026

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This article is the author’s final published version in Cancer Medicine, Volume 15, Issue 1, 2026, Article number e71133.

The published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1002/cam4.71133. Copyright © 2026 The Author(s).

 

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common renal malignancy-bone metastases (BM) are indicative of aggressive disease with a poor prognosis. We aim to evaluate the overall mortality of patients with RCC with and without BM, and to elucidate the effects of bone-remodeling therapy on mortality, incidence of skeletal-related events, and opioid usage patterns in patients with BM.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted using TriNetX, a large, collaborative network sourced from electronic medical records of over 110 million patients from over 100 healthcare organizations. All adult patients with RCC and RCC with BM were queried.

RESULTS: There were 139,859 patients diagnosed with RCC, of which 9021 had RCC with bone metastases (BM). Among these, 999 patients received only bisphosphonates (BPs), 973 received only RANK ligand inhibitors (RANKLi), and 119 patients initially received BPs before switching to RANKLi. Presence of BM results in a ~2.5-fold increase in 5-year mortality rate (p <  0.0001) and a statistically significant increase in all SREs compared to those without BM. Patients receiving bisphosphonates had significantly higher rates of opioid use (p <  0.001) and comparable rates of chronic pain diagnoses to the overall BM group (p = 0.9217). In contrast, patients receiving RANKLi had a statistically significant reduction in opioid use (p <  0.001) and hypocalcemia (p <  0.001) compared to those on BPs, and an improved 5-year survival rate (p <  0.0001) and median survival (p <  0.0001) relative to the overall BM cohort.

CONCLUSION: Patients receiving RANKLi have significantly improved survival, reduced opioid use and lower rates of SREs. Patients with RCC and BMs experienced significantly worse outcomes compared to those without BM. Surprisingly, among RCC patients with BMs, those treated with BPs only experienced even poorer outcomes.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

PubMed ID

41532365

Language

English

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