[Preoperative prognostic variables in renal cancer]

To analyze the correlation between preoperative variables in patients with kidney cancer and subsequent finding of bad prognosis factors.

Retrospective cohort study reviewing the charts of all patients undergoing surgery at the HIBA bet- ween June 1988 and April 2003. 555 patients were included, registering age, gender, and clinical presentation. Pathology reports were classified following WHO for histology, Furhman for tumor grade, and AJCC for tumor stage. Intrarenal disease was defined as tumors < or = T2; the rest of the tumors were considered extrarenal. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistic 7 Software, performing Students t test, proportions comparison test, chi-square test, and odds ratio.

Mean age was 58.8 years (r: 20-94), 388 (69.9%) patients were males and 167 (30.1%) females. 209 (37.7%) were smokers or ex-smokers. 256 (46.1%) tumors were incidentally diagnosed, 299 (53.9%) were symptomatic. The right kidney was affected more often (54.6%), and 2.3% were bilateral synchronic tumors. Grade II was the most frequent grade (62.2%). T1 was the predominant TNM with 273 patients (49.2%). Mean tumor size was 6.7 cm, with 5.54 cm for the intrarenal tumors and 8.67 cm for the extrarenal (Student t test p < 0.00001). 49.6% (127) of the 256 asymptomatic patients have extrarenal tumors, in comparison with only 26.4% (79) of the 299 symptomatic patients (chi-square p < 0.00001). Ninety-two (44%) of the 209 smokers had extrarenal tumors in comparison with 114 (32.9%) of the non-smokers.

We may say that patients having a symptomatic renal tumor have between 2 and 3 times more probability to have non organ-confined disease at the time of surgery This also increases, although in smaller amounts, between smokers and older than 70 years patients. The presence of a tumor greater than 7 cm almost triplicates of the possibility of extrarenal involvement.