[Results of curative or non-curative nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma invading adjacent organs]

We reviewed 12 patients who had undergone curative or non-curative nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma invading adjacent organs (stage T4). 83 patients with renal cell carcinoma confined within the perirenal fascia (T1-T3) who had undergone nephrectomy served as controls. Of the 12 patients with T4 tumor 6 had undergone simultaneous excision of involved adjacent organs (hemicolectomy in 4, resection of the tail of pancreas in 5, splenectomy in 2). At operation 6 patients with T4 tumor had distant metastasis, 3 had fixed lymph node metastases, and 4 had tumor extension into the main renal vein or vena cava. Although T4 tumor had distant or fixed lymph node metastasis more frequently than T1-T3 tumors, the incidence of gross tumor thrombus showed no such difference between T3 and T4 tumors. Postoperative follow-up of patients with T4 tumor showed that local recurrence developed within 9 months in 3 of 5 patients who had undergone curative excision, new distant metastasis developed within 6 months in 5 patients, 1 patient died of acute renal failure in the early convalescence, 10 patients died of the disease within 12 months and 1 died of the disease in 31 months. Pathological examination showed that T4 tumors tended to be classified as grade 3, to extend in an infiltrating fashion and to have a sarcomatoid structure. Patients who had a tumor where these three histological features were dominant died to tumor within 3 months after nephrectomy. These results indicate that curative excision of T4 renal cell carcinoma is not only difficult, but frequently associated with early local recurrence and new distant metastasis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)