Prognostic factors in renal carcinoma. An evaluation of operative findings.

A consecutive series of 257 patients with renal carcinoma treated by radical nephrectomy is presented. The crude 5-year and 10-year survival rates for all patients were 47 and 31% respectively and for patients without distant metastases 62 and 50%. The importance of factors relating to prognosis was investigated with multivariate survival analysis. Metastases, nodal involvement and histological grade were strongly and independently associated with survival, but the influence of venous invasion was less important. When these factors are taken into consideration, direct extension, size and cell type of the tumour or sex and age of the patient give no significant additional prognostic information.