Clinical and pathological study of renal cell carcinoma

Thirty-four renal cell carcinoma patients treated at our hospital between 1990 and 1995 were analyzed to determine their clinical and pathological characteristics. The correlations among various clinicopathological factors were evaluated using chi square analysis. And the relationship between each of these factors and recurrencefree rates was evaluated by Kaplan-Meier's method and multivariate analysis. The tumors of 4 cm or smaller in diameter and those found incidentally had significantly higher rates for being hypovascular on angiograms. The multivariate analysis showed that the pathological stage was the most important risk factor for recurrence with symptoms and tumor size being dependent upon the pathological stage. In conclusion, the pathological stage of renal cell carcinoma is the most important determinant for tumor recurrence and favourable prognosis can be expected when tumors are detected incidentally or small in size and not misdiagnosed.