Surgical Treatment of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

The survivals of 174 patients who underwent nephrectomy forrenal cell carcinoma were analyzed to evaluate the influenceof the surgical treatment of metastases on their prognosis.For 34 of the 174 patients, surgical resections of the metastaseswere performed concurrently with nephrectomy. For 38 patients,44 surgical resections of metastases were performed in the follow-upperiod after nephrectomy. Apparently curative resections ofmetastases, at the time of nephrectomy or after nephrectomy,were significantly correlated with good survivals after surgery,irrespective of the number of metastatic foci. Aggressive surgicaltreatment was beneficial in patients with a longer tumor-freeperiod after nephrectomy or with stable disease for about sixmonths after surgical treatment, although this might simplybe a reflection of a longer natural disease course in this specificgroup of patients.