1989 Volume 80 Issue 9 Pages 1310-1315
Between January 1987 and July 1988, 151 cases of renal cell carcinoma were nephrectomized at out institutions. Among them 41 cases (27.2%) were diagnosed incidentally. The ratio of incidental carcinoma has been increasing steadily in the past decade. Thirty-four of these cases (82.9%) were detected by ultrasound, 4 by computerized tomography, and three by excretory urography. Twenty-eight of these cases were found serendipitously during examination for other diseases, while others had no symptoms at all.
Only 8 of these cases (19.5%) showed microscopic hematuria. The stage and the grade of these incidental carcinoma were significantly lower than those of symptomatic carcinoma (p<0.001). The survival rate of the former was better than that of the latter (p<0.01), especially in patients with pT1-2b tumors (p<0.05) or with tumors smaller than 10cm in diameter (p<0.05).
