Right renal mass with vena caval thrombus

This case illustrates the difficulties that sometimes occur in the evaluation of patients with a nonfunctioning kidney. Because of the clinical presentation, suggestive of renal cell carcinoma, no urinary cytology study was obtained from the affected kidney. This study certainly would have led to the correct diagnosis. Despite this fact, the operative management would not have changed except for complete removal of the ureter. In our case we elected to follow the distal ureter by ureteral washings and ureteroscopy during follow-up cystoscopy studies to preclude a further operation. Although no data are available on the role of adjuvant therapy in these patients, because of the poor prognosis associated with such extensive disease we gave our patient 2 courses of M-VAC in an attempt to prevent progression of the disease.