Elsevier

Urology

Volume 59, Issue 4, April 2002, Pages 532-537
Urology

Adult urology
Prognostic features of pathologic stage T1 renal cell carcinoma after radical nephrectomy

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0090-4295(01)01589-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives. To assess the effect of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) subtype, tumor size, and Fuhrman grade on clinical outcome in patients with pathologic T1 (pT1) RCC treated with radical nephrectomy.

Methods. Between 1970 and 1998, 840 patients underwent radical nephrectomy for pT1 RCC. Tumors were subtyped and graded. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards models were fitted to assess the features associated with metastasis-free survival (MFS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS). We identified a range of tumor sizes of clear cell RCC in which a transition occurred from low to high risk. Cox proportional hazards models were then fitted by using size cutoffs.

Results. The mean follow-up (± SD) was 9.4 ± 6.6 years among the patients alive at latest follow-up. At 10 years, the CSS and MFS for clear cell RCC (n = 682) were 89.1% and 88.6%, respectively; for papillary RCC (n = 122), they were 95.5% and 93.8%; and for chromophobe RCC (n = 33), they were both 100%. The differences in CSS (P = 0.013) and MFS (P = 0.023) between clear cell RCC and the other subtypes were statistically significant. For clear cell RCC, tumor size and Fuhrman grade were independently associated with CSS and MFS (P <0.001). A transition in risk occurred for tumor sizes between 4.5 and 5.0 cm, and the tumor size cutoff of 5.0 cm had the highest concordance index for predicting CSS and MFS.

Conclusions. RCC subtype is a strong independent prognostic variable for patients with pT1 RCC treated with radical nephrectomy. For clear cell RCC, Fuhrman grade and tumor size are independently associated with CSS and MFS.

Section snippets

Material and methods

Between 1970 and 1998, 840 consecutive patients (532 men, 308 women; mean age ± SD, 63.3 ± 11.3 years) underwent radical nephrectomy for sporadic pT1 RCC at our institution. Patients were excluded if they had lymph node and distant metastasis at presentation, had undergone previous surgical procedures, or had bilateral synchronous tumors, multiple RCC tumors, hereditary RCC, such as von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, familial papillary RCC, or RCC related to tuberous sclerosis. Among the 840 patients

Results

Among the 840 patients with pT1 RCC, 682 (81.2%) had clear cell (conventional) RCC, 122 (14.5%) had papillary RCC, 33 (3.9%) had chromophobe RCC, and 3 (0.4%) had RCC not otherwise specified. The results are reported separately for clear cell, papillary, and chromophobe RCC. Patient and tumor characteristics are summarized in Table I by histologic subtype. The median follow-up among the patients alive at latest follow-up with clear cell, papillary, and chromophobe RCC was 8.2, 7.8, and 7.1

Comment

In our study, RCC subtype was significantly associated with CSS and MFS in patients with pT1 RCC. In addition, tumor size and Fuhrman grade were significantly associated with CSS and MFS in patients with clear cell RCC, and the tumor cutoff of 5 cm identified patients at low and high risk of tumor progression and death from RCC. Pathologic stage, nuclear grade, and histologic RCC subtype are considered important factors associated with prognosis for RCC.6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Conclusions

RCC histologic subtype is an important prognostic feature. In clear cell RCC, tumor size and Fuhrman grade are strong independent prognostic variables for patients who have pT1 RCC treated with radical nephrectomy. The tumor size cutoff of 5.0 cm is useful for subclassification of T1 tumors into T1a (less than 5 cm) and T1b (5 to 7 cm). On the basis of this study, stratification of patients with T1 clear cell RCC into prognostic subgroups would be useful. It would facilitate better patient

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