Prevalence of Malignancy and Histopathologic Association of Bosniak Classification, Version 2019 Class III and IV Cystic Renal Masses.

Bosniak Classification, version 2019 (v2019) describes two types of class III and IV masses each: 1) thick, wall/septa ≥4 mm (III-WS), 2) obtuse protrusion ≤3 mm (III-OP), 3) obtuse protrusion ≥4 mm (IV-OP), and 4) acute protrusion of any size (IV-AP). The purposes were to determine the prevalence of malignancy and histopathologic features of class III and IV masses and subclasses.
In this IRB-approved and HIPAA-compliant study, three fellowship-trained abdominal radiologists (R1-3) reviewed cystic renal masses that had tissue pathology and pre-operative renal mass protocol CT or MRI. Classes based on v2019 and prior classification systems were retrospectively re-assigned and associated with malignancy, aggressive histologic features (necrosis or high Fuhrman grade), and radiologic progression following resection.
The final sample included 79 masses (59 malignant, 20 benign) from 74 patients. Based on v2019, prevalence of malignancy ranged from 56-61% (mean 60%) for class III and 83-83% (mean 83%) for class IV (p=0.036, 0.013, 0.036 for R1-3). Prevalence of malignancy within subclasses were: III-WS (47-53%); III-OP (71-85%); IV-OP (75-87%); IV-AP (87-95%; p=0.029, 0.001, 0.005). All readers were more likely to classify malignancies with aggressive histologic features as class IV (88-100%) rather than class III (0-12%; p=0.012, <0.001, 0.002), corresponding to a negative predictive value of 96-100%. Following treatment (mean follow-up length 1210 days), one patient developed metastases.
Bosniak Classification, version 2019 can help risk stratification of class III-IV masses by identifying those likely to be malignant and have aggressive histologic features.