Cytoreductive surgery with liver-involved renal cell carcinoma

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the benefits of cytoreductive surgery for renal cell carcinomas that also involve the liver. Between 1994 and 1997, four patients with renal cell carcinoma with liver involvement were surgically treated with nephrectomy and hepatectomy. Two of them underwent a simultaneous hepatectomy and nephrectomy (group 1), and the remaining two patients underwent a hepatectomy after a nephrectomy and had a diagnosis of postoperative recurrence (group 2). Two patients, one from each group, died of multiple bone metastasis and lung metastasis 30 months and 12 months after the hepatectomy; the second patient from group 1 died 40 months after the first operation due to gastrointestinal hemorrhaging. The second patient from group 2 displayed no evidence of recurrence 18 months after the second surgical procedure. The survival rates for these patients were 66% and 33% at 1 and 3 years, respectively. Autopsy studies revealed that one patient from group 2 had a local recurrence in the liver while the other two patients from group 1 did not. Our results suggested that a progressive approach may therefore be useful for patients demonstrating renal cell carcinoma where there is liver involvement.