Progression and Survival after Renal-Conserving Surgery for Renal Cell Carcinoma: Experience in 104 Patients and Extended Followup

Of 104 patients who underwent a conservative operation for renal cell carcinoma 42 underwent partial nephrectomy, 60 underwent enucleation and 2 underwent a combination of these procedures. A total of 14 patients required an extracorporeal operation with autotransplantation. Forty patients had bilateral renal cell carcinoma (20 were synchronous and 20 were asynchronous) and 39 had either a solitary kidney or a poorly functioning contralateral renal unit. An operation was performed in the presence of a normal contralateral unit in 20 patients. The maximal duration of followup was 20 years (mean 4.9 years): 43, 17 and 7 patients were followed for 5 or more, 10 or more and 15 or more years, respectively. The 5-year cause-specific survival rates were 88.6 +/- 5.6, 91.6 +/- 4.7 and 88.9 +/- 3.8%, respectively, for the enucleation group, partial nephrectomy group and all patients combined. The percentages of patients free of local recurrence at 5 years for the enucleation and partial nephrectomy groups were 94.6 +/- 3.9 and 93.3 +/- 4.7%, respectively. The 14 patients who required an ex vivo approach had larger, higher stage and higher grade tumors, and a poorer outcome (5-year cause-specific survival rate and local rate free of recurrence were 54.9 +/- 17.2 and 85.7 +/- 13.2%, respectively). None of the 20 patients with a normal contralateral unit had progression. The local survival rate free of disease and cause-specific survival rate were not significantly different for the simple enucleation and partial nephrectomy groups. Even longer followup is needed to assess more clearly the definitive role of simple enucleation in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma and the clinical relevance of possible positive margins in a patient population that usually is older.