Reasons for Nephrectomy

Abstract

It is almost axiomatic that locally extensive and metastatic cancers run inexorable courses. However, exceptions occur and such exceptions are more common with renal cell carcinoma than with most other cancers. Generally speaking, however, standard factors which affect the prognosis of most tumors also influence the outcome of patients with renal cell tumors. Involvement of adjacent structures by direct extension, involvement of regional lymph nodes, gross invasion of the renal vein or its tributaries, and distant metastases all portend a poor outcome. Pathologic grade of the tumor and cell type also influence the survival figures. In general, the three-year survival rates of renal cell carcinoma range between 45% and 56%; the five-year survival rates, between 33% and 48%; and the ten-year survival rates vary between 18% and 27%. In a recent analysis of 100 cases of all stages treated at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center and