Organ-preserving surgery for renal cell carcinoma in patients with a solitary kidney or bilateral tumors.

Organ-preserving surgery is generally accepted when renal cell carcinoma (RCC) occurs in a solitary kidney or in both kidneys. Over a 12-year period, 238 patients underwent surgery for RCC at our hospital; 15 (6.3%) of these underwent organ-preserving procedures. Nine of ten patients with disease in a solitary kidney are alive without evidence of tumor (four more than 5 years postoperatively and five from 2 to 4 years). Six patients had bilateral disease, three of whom are alive at 2, 2, and 3 years, and three of whom died at 4, 5, and 9 years.