Survival in patients with rare subtypes of renal cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the survival of patients with rare malignant histological subtypes of renal cancer.


METHODS
The Heidelberg classification of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) divides tumours into clear cell carcinoma (CCC), papillary cancer (PC), chromophobic cancer (ChC) and collecting duct carcinoma (CDC). Sarcomatoid tumours are in a different subgroup treated as a final stage of histological progression. Between 1990 and 1997, 319 nephrectomies were undertaken because of RCC in 317 patients. In 42 patients (13%) the pathological findings showed other than CCC; in 13 PC was confirmed histologically, in nine ChC, in 11 a mixed type of CCC and sarcomatoid type, in seven a sarcomatoid tumour and in four, CDC.


RESULTS
One patient of the 13 with PC and two of the nine with ChC died. The worst prognosis was in those with CDC, CCC-sarcomatoid and sarcomatoid tumours, as all these patients died.


CONCLUSIONS
The histopathological differentiation of RCC into subtypes gives additional useful prognostic information.
Grabowski
M
M
Department of Urology, and Department of Pathology and Genetics, Pomeranian Medical Academy, Szczecin, Poland.
Huzarski
T
T
Lubinski
J
J
Sikorski
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome