Renal cell carcinoma with tumor-thrombus extension into the right ventricle.

Renal cell carcinoma is a tumor with the distinct feature that it can invade through the renal vein into the inferior vena cava, and can grow intravascularly, sometimes extending into right cardiac chambers. Surgical resection provides the only reasonable chance for a cure, and cardiopulmonary bypass with hypothermic circulatory arrest is used to resect an intracardiac extension of the tumor because the tumor-thrombus adhered strongly to the hepatic vein and to the endocardium of the right atrium (RA). We present 2 patients, with renal cell carcinoma extending into the right ventricle, who have lived for more than five years after the operation.