Renal cell carcinoma detected by screening shows better patient survival than that detected following symptoms in dialysis patients.

There is an apparent advantage to early or incidental diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma in the general population. We investigated whether the prognosis of dialysis patients with renal cell carcinoma is better if renal cell carcinoma is detected by screening of patients without symptoms rather than by examination after the appearance of the symptoms. Two groups in which renal cell carcinomas were detected by screening (N = 721) and by symptoms (n = 76) were compared. The model tested consisted of patient age and duration of dialysis in addition to the detection by screening or symptoms. Cox proportional hazard model was used to compare survival rates between the groups. The hazard ratio of death from all causes in patients with renal cell carcinoma detection by screening was 0.653 and the risk of death was reduced by 35%, compared with that in the group with detection due to symptoms. Moreover, the 50% survival rate in the group detected by symptoms was 80 months and the ratio of those detected by screening was 119 months. Therefore, screening provided a survival benefit of 39 months (3.3 years) in death from all causes after adjustment for age and duration of dialysis. The survival rate was best in young patients with a short duration of dialysis and renal cell carcinoma detected by screening. In dialysis patients with renal cell carcinoma, the survival rate in the group detected by screening was better than that in the group detected by symptoms. Especially, there was a large effect of screening for renal cell carcinoma in the young dialysis patients.