Prognosis after nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma

During the period 1977-1988 177 males and 81 females (age 28-87 years) had nephrectomy performed for renal cell carcinoma. The most frequent symptoms were flank pain (54%) and hematuria (53%). Few patients (6%) had the classical triad of symptoms. Overall survival at 2 and 5 years were 0.55 and 0.41. Renal cell carcinoma specific survival were 0.59 and 0.49. Univariate analyses showed that increasing T stage, positive N or M stage, increasing stage according to Robson, hypersedimentation, anaemia and perioperative blood transfusion had a significant detrimental influence on survival. Multivariate analysis showed that simple Robson stage gave a simpler and equally good description as did the TNM stage. In the Cox multiple regression analysis Robson stage and ESR were the only statistically significant variables.