Submitted by James Cantwell on Thu, 14/05/2026 - 14:53
Supporting better decisions after kidney cancer surgery
For most patients treated for kidney cancer, the journey does not end with surgery. Up to 30% will experience recurrence within five years, making a transition to follow-up care essential but often challenging. Guidelines recommend tailoring surveillance to a patient’s recurrence risk, but implementation varies between centres. Patients report little communication of information about their risk and a lack of transparency around decision-making.
To address this challenge, researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed PREDICT-Kidney, a patient-facing online tool designed to support clinicians when communicating personalised recurrence risk after surgery.
A co-designed approach
PREDICT-Kidney was developed through a qualitative co-design process involving patients, members of the public, and healthcare professionals across the United Kingdom. Through a series of workshops in which the tool was showcased, participants discussed its features, shared feedback, and evaluated changes. The research team prioritised the feedback by volume and ease of implementation to determine changes made to the tool after each round of workshops.
This iterative process led to substantial refinement of the initial prototype tool, with changes made to terminology, visual design and content. Importantly, the approach ensured that the final tool reflects not only clinical priorities but also patient needs and expectations.
How the tool works
PREDICT-Kidney is a web-based tool that generates personalised estimates of kidney cancer recurrence in the ten years following surgery. By entering patient-specific characteristics (pathology, age and sex), clinicians can obtain risk predictions based on an established prognostic model. The tool also includes an adjustment for the competing risk of death from other causes. This provides a more holistic assessment of patient prognosis, rather than relying solely on tumour pathology. Results are presented using multiple visual formats to support understanding, alongside a printable report that patients can take away after the consultation (Figure).
Looking ahead
PREDICT-Kidney represents a promising step towards more personalised follow-up care in kidney cancer. A multicentre feasibility study is underway to evaluate its implementation in urology clinics, including measuring its impact on patient understanding and satisfaction with follow-up care.
This work also highlights the importance of co-design with stakeholders in developing digital health tools. By integrating patient and clinician perspectives into the design process, we have developed a tool that balances the needs of both groups. In the future, we hope to integrate information about adjuvant immunotherapy to support shared decision-making about this new treatment option.
Read the full paper here:
Re et al. (2026) Development of the PREDICT-Kidney online tool to promote informed decision-making about kidney cancer follow-up care: a qualitative co-design study. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2025-110668.