Sarcomatoid renal carcinoma.

Sarcomatoid renal carcinoma made up 1 per cent of renal parenchymal tumors resected from 1967 to 1980. The majority of patients with this aggressive type of renal carcinoma were symptomatic and had a palpable renal mass at the time of diagnosis. Only 2 of 13 patients had tumor confined within the renal capsule at the time of operation. One of these patients survived and 12 of 13 died rapidly of metastatic renal carcinoma, with a median survival of 6.3 months from the time of diagnosis. This distinctive histologic variant of renal carcinoma has a highly malignant biological behavior and, as effective adjuvant treatment for renal carcinoma becomes available, should be one of the tumor types treated vigorously.