Prognostic value of TNM stage and tumor necrosis for renal cell carcinoma

Abstract Our objective was to assess the value of tumor necrosis and other factors for predicting the outcome of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Our study comprised 328 RCC patients who were surgically treated at this hospital between 2001 and 2006. The five-year survival data was analyzed using a Kaplan-Meier statistical analysis. The prognostic factors were evaluated with a univariate analysis using a log-rank test and multivariate analysis using the Cox proportional hazards regression method. The mean follow-up period for these patients was 46.5 months (median 45.2 months). The univariate analysis revealed that age, tumor stage, TNM stage, grade, tumor necrosis, and histological type were statistically significant prognostic factors. The multivariate analysis showed that the TNM stage and tumor necrosis were the most important predictive factors in the patients’ overall survival. In the TNM stage with and without tumor necrosis, the five-year overall survival rates in stages I + II were 80.5% and 89.2%, respectively ( p = 0.115), where as the five-year survival rates in stages III + IV were 32.7% and 84.0%, respectively ( p < 0.001). Collectively, our present data revealed that tumor necrosis was an important predictive factor for survival in advanced stage RCC. In conclusion, both the TNM stage and tumor necrosis provided the most important prognostic factors of survival in RCC. Tumor necrosis proved to be a poor prognostic factor in advanced RCCs.