Surveillance following radical or partial nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma.

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most lethal of the common urologic malignancies, with approximately 40% of patients eventually dying of cancer progression. Approximately one third of patients present with metastatic disease and up to 50% treated for localized disease have a recurrence. Although the prognosis generally is poor in these patients, some may respond to immunotherapy and a subset of patients who develop solitary metastases can achieve long-term survival. Therefore, the timely identification of recurrences following surgical extirpation is imperative in the treatment of patients.