Renal cell carcinoma: A clinicopathological follow-up study after radical nephrectomy

Objective. To examine the prognostic significance of performance status, tumour stage, histological subtype, nuclear grade and histological tumour necrosis (HTN) in a population of consecutive patients subjected to radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Material and methods. The cohort consisted of 110 males and 86 females with a mean age of 66 years (range 39-88 years). The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) was determined in all cases. The tumours were staged according to the 2002 TNM classification of the American Joint Committee on Cancer. Histological subtype was diagnosed using the Heidelberg classification. Nuclear grading was performed by means of Fuhrman's method. The median follow-up period was 65 months (mean 83 months; range 1-232 months). Results. Median overall survival (OS) was 65 months and median cancer-specific survival (CSS) was 171 months. CSS was correlated with TNM classification, with the longest survival occurring for stage I and II tumours, shorter survival for stage III tumours and shortest survival for stage IV tumours (p