Role of lymphadenectomy in the treatment of renal cell carcinoma.

We evaluated the role of lymphadenectomy (LND) in the prevention of local recurrence following radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) by two retrospective studies. In one, the relative importance of various tumor characteristics to the subsequent development of local recurrence was investigated in 37 patients who underwent radical nephrectomy and later progressed. In 29 evaluable patients, only nodal metastasis was predictive of local recurrence, which developed in 6 of 7 node-positive patients. In our second study the records of 69 consecutive patients with RCC who underwent radical nephrectomy with or without simultaneous LND (N = 42 and 27, respectively) were reviewed. Local control after LND was excellent in node-positive disease; in no node-positive patient with unilateral RCC has a local recurrence developed (N = 5). LND did not extend hospitalization or add to the morbidity of radical nephrectomy.