Stratification of risk factors in renal cell carcinoma.

One hundred fifteen patients underwent surgical treatment of renal cell carcinoma. Survival time was analyzed by statistical regression methods in order to determine the joint significance of stage, using both the Robson and TNM classifications, histologic grade, cell type, and demographic features of the patient sample. Grade and cell type were essentially interchangeable with respect to predicting survival in patients with and without metastatic disease. The strong association between these two factors explains and supports this result. The presence of metastases dramatically altered survival. Local extent of the tumor was an important indicator of survival in the nonmetastatic group of patients, but was not a statistically significant factor in those patients presenting with widespread disease. Venous involvement was not found to be of prognostic significance in either group. Age and weight loss contributed to predicting survival in the nonmetastatic patient group in addition to the measures of disease extent already discussed. Sex and race were not significant indicators of length of survival. In the group of patients with metastatic disease, no difference in survival was observed between soft tissue and bony metastases.