Stage IV renal cell carcinoma.

Data from 104 patients with stage IV renal cell carcinoma were evaluated to investigate relationships between survival and gender, race, age, tumor size, lung versus bone metastasis, number of metastatic sites and nephrectomy. No statistically significant differences in survival were found between gender or racial groups, nor was there a statistically significant relationship between survival and patient age. Survival tended to decrease as tumor size increased. Survival was worse for patients with multiple metastatic sites compared to those with only 1 metastatic site, and for patients with bone and lung metastases compared to those with lung but no bone metastases and bone but no lung metastases. Although nephrectomy patients appeared to have somewhat better survival rates than those without nephrectomy, this difference was apparently due to better prognostic factors for nephrectomy patients.