Renal Cell Cancer Part Iii: Types Of Treatment

Abstract

Cancer of the kidney consists mainly of primary tumors that affect the organ; they originate in the proximal portion of the renal tubules and make up 70-80% of all renal tumors. A large proportion of the patients with renal carcinoma are diagnosed as metastasis carriers on their first medical visit. Various authors have stated that 25-57% of the patients with renal cancer have undergone metastasis before the initiation of any treatment. Spontaneous reversion of this type of metastasis, following excision of the primary tumor, has been operationally defined as the partial or complete disappearance of the said tumor and is not synonymous with its cure. This type of regression will invariably depend on the aggressiveness of the tumor and the capacity of the patient to respond to the disease. The infrequency of spontaneous reversion is discussed by Holland (Cancer 32 (1979) 1030) who has collected sixty clinical cases, of which the majority of spontaneous reversions occur after removal of the kidney. Only three of these cases occurred without previous removal of the kidney. The total incidence of this phenomenon, evaluating the information obtained from nine different authors, suggests an incidence of spontaneous reversion of 0.8%. The case we are going to describe concerns a sick woman with spontaneous regression of multiple metastases of the lung, which were a result of renal carcinoma which was diagnosed histologically. The kidney in this case was not removed.