[Renal adenocarcinoma. Prognostic factors].

Objectives: To perform a descriptive analysis of 57 cases of renal adenocarcinoma treated in our department, trying to identify those variables that modify survival, and to evaluate the impact of incidental diagnosis on survival.

Methods: 57 cases of renal cell carcinoma treated in our department from 1996 to 2001 were retrospectively reviewed. Mean follow-up time was 30 months. The impact on survival of incidental diagnosis, stage, and other variables was evaluated. We used the chi-square test to study the association between qualitative variables, and the prevalence proportion with 95% confidence intervals to quantify the magnitude of the association.

Results: Mean age on presentation was 63 +/- 12.57 yr. The most frequent histological type was classic renal cell carcinoma (83.6%). hematuria was the presenting sign in most cases. 19.3% were incidentally diagnosed with a 24 month survival was 100% in comparison to 59% of the patients presenting with clinical signs/symptoms (p = 0.0218); 24 month survival rates for stages I-II was 95.83% in comparison to 48.48% for stage III-IV.

Conclusions: Renal cell adenocarcinoma is an aggressive tumor with a variety of clinical presentations which delay its diagnosis. Tumor stage is one of the main prognostic factors. Nowadays, the greater availability of radiological tests, mainly ultrasounds, has resulted on an increase in the number of incidental diagnosis and therefore a greater number of early stages; it is advisable to perform a renal pathology screening on every patient who undergoes abdominal ultrasound for any other reason.