Prognostic factors in renal cell carcinoma.

Various prognostic factors were retrospectively studied in 81 patients with renal cell carcinoma. Among 16 studied variables 3 were statistically strongly associated with survival. These were clinical stage, tumour cell type and histopathological grade. Some other variables were statistically associated with survival, e.g. tumour size, palpable mass, sedimentation rate and haemoglobin value. In patients surviving more than 10 years, the majority of tumours (28/35) were confined within the renal capsule. Tumours spreading outside the renal capsule dominated in patients who survived less than 10 years (32/46). Patients with renal vein involvement only had longer survival times than those with other local spread.