Evaluation of General Characteristics of Renal Cell Carcinoma Patients: A Single Center Experience

Renal cancer (RC) accounts for 3.2% of all newly diagnosed cancers, 4.1% in males and 2.5% in females (1). Approximately 90% of RCs are renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Based on tumor morphology, immunohistochemistry, cytogenetics, and other molecular studies, the subtypes of RCC are clear cell, papillary, chromophobe, and collecting-duct or Bellini duct tumors. The most common subtype of RCC is clear cell carcinoma, with a rate of approximately 80% (2,3,4). Cigarette smoking and hypertension are the most important risk factors in the development of RCC (5,6). Surgery is very important in the treatment of RCC (7). As more patients are diagnosed in the early stages, partial nephrectomy is increasingly used instead of radical nephrectomy for treatment. RCC is a radioresistant tumor; thus, radiotherapy (RT) cannot be used in its treatment. RT can only be performed as palliative treatment in conditions such as brain and bone metastasis (8,9). Systemic treatment is not necessary Objective: Renal cancer (RC) accounts for 3.2% of all newly diagnosed cancers and approximately 90% of RC cases are renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Smoking and hypertension are the most important risk factors. The aim of our study was to evaluate the general characteristics of RCC patients in Bolu, Turkey. Materials and Methods: Patients who visited our medical oncology clinic and were diagnosed with RCC between January 1st, 2012 and May 31st, 2017 were evaluated retrospectively. Results: Eighty-one patients were diagnosed with RCC during the study period. The median age of the patients was 62 years (range: 38-87 years). Fifty-seven (70.4%) of the patients were male and 24 (29.6%) were female. Thirty patients (37.1%) were diagnosed incidentally. Forty-eight (59.3%) of the patients were smokers. The most common comorbidity was hypertension (58%). Radical nephrectomy was performed in 59 (72.8%) of the patients. The most common histological subtype was clear cell carcinoma (72.8%) and 39 (48.1%) were stage 1 when evaluated according to the stage of RCC. Of the 16 patients with metastatic disease, 11 (13.6%) received interferon therapy, and 5 patients (6.2%) refused treatment. After interferon treatment, 7 patients received targeted therapy with sunitinib/pazopanib as second-line treatment, 5 received everolimus as third-line treatment, and 3 received axitinib treatment as fourth-line treatment. Ten patients with bone metastasis underwent palliative radiotherapy. The median follow-up time of the patients was 21 months (0-123 months). Sixty-five patients (80.2%) survived this period. Conclusion: Smoking cessation and effective treatment of hypertension, preventable etiological factors of RCC, and incidental diagnosis of early RCC are very important. With early diagnosis, the partial nephrectomy rate might be increased.