Surgery of the primary tumor of metastasizing renal carcinoma.

40% or 116 of 350 patients with renal carcinoma had distant metastases at the time of hospital admission (M1, N0-4). Women fell ill less often than men did (3:7). 82 of 116 patients (71%) received nephrectomy primarily. Lethality within the first 30 days was 6%. Patients with nephrectomy survived longer than those without, women with nephrectomy survived longer than men. Patients with a grade II tumor survived longer than those with a grade III tumor. Palliative nephrectomy can therefore be recommended as treatment of choice, if the general condition of the patient allows it, the more so as there are no alternative ways of treatment.