Causes and Results of Nephrology Consultation in Oncological Diseases: A Single-Center Experience

Objective: Cancer and kidney diseases are closely related since the incidence of cancer is increased in patients with chronic kidney disease and various manifestations of kidney injury occur in cancer patients. We aimed to examine the diagno- ses, reasons for consultation, and recovery status of oncologic patients who were consulted on an outpatient basis to the nephrology clinic.

Methods: One hundred thirty-three patients were retrospectively included. Analysis was performed by recording the etiol- ogy of kidney disease, and laboratory results at the first and last visit.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 62.7 (37-86) years and 52.6% of patients were female. The mean follow-up time was 15.6 ± 11.9 months. The most frequently consulted malignancy group was gastrointestinal (n = 39) and urogenital sys- tem tumors (n = 36). Ranking of the reasons for consultation according to frequency: acute kidney injury (n = 60), chronic kidney disease (n = 35), proteinuria (n = 20), electrolyte imbalance (n = 14), and others (n = 4). When patients who were consulted for chronic kidney disease were excluded, the 3 most common etiological diagnoses of the consultation reasons were chemotherapy-related toxicity (n = 26), dehydration (n = 16), and chemotherapy-associated proteinuria (n = 16). While progression was observed in 21.6% of the patients consulted with acute kidney injury, progression was observed in 8.6% of the patients consulted with chronic kidney disease. Proteinuria regressed in 75% of the patients consulted for proteinuria.

Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that those diagnosed with gastrointestinal and urogenital system cancer were consulted to nephrology more frequently and clinical improvement was observed in the vast majority of patients. The con- cept of onco-nephrology should be further expanded.

Cite this article as: Tuğcu M, Barutçu Ataş D. Causes and results of nephrology consultation in oncological diseases: A single-center experience. Turk J Nephrol. 2023;32(3):198-202.