Management of renal cell carcinoma with solitary metastasis

BACKGROUND Distant metastasis are common in Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) nearly one forth of the patients have metastasis at presentation while another 50% develop metastasis during the follow-up. A small percentage of these are solitary metastasis. We describe survival after surgical excision or radiotherapy of solitary metastatic lesion from renal cell carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between 1988-2001, 43 patients with solitary metastasis to different sites from renal cell carcinoma underwent either surgical excision or radiotherapy were analyzed. The solitary nature of the lesions was confirmed by investigations. All patients have had radical nephrectomy for the primary lesion. Survival analysis was carried out by Kaplan Meier Method. RESULTS All solitary metastatic lesions were treated with intent of cure either by excision or radiotherapy. Of these, 13 patients had solitary metastasis at the time of presentation in whom 3-year overall median survival was 26 months. The survival of those who developed solitary metastases during follow-up after nephrectomy for primary was 45 months. The patients with long interval between diagnosis and development of metastasis, early stage and low grade of the primary tumor had better prognosis. CONCLUSION Complete resection of either synchronous or metachronous solitary metastases from renal cell carcinoma is justified and can contribute to a long-term survival in this select group of patients.