Diagnosis And Treatment Of Cystic Renal Cell Carcinoma

Cystic renal cell carcinoma (CRCC) is not common clinically. However, it is difficult to distinguish it from renal cystic diseases because of the similarity of symptoms. Therefore, it seems necessary to study its clinical features, image characteristics and treatments. There are 5 cases in this article to be reviewed about the clinical features, image characteristics and pathology, as well as surgery and prognosis. It's supposed to be helpful for gaining deeper knowledge of cystic renal cell carcinoma.Objective: To improve the ability of diagnosis and treatment of cystic renal cell carcinoma. Methods: A retrospective analysis was going on 5 cases of cystic renal cell carcinoma from March 1996 to February 2005 about clinical features, image characteristics and pathology, as well as surgery and prognosis. In the 5 cases of cystic renal cell carcinoma, 2 cases were diagnosed as simple cystic mass, 2 cases were diagnosed as complex cystic mass, and other 1 case was diagnosed as abdominal mass before the surgery. All the 5 cases were proved as cystic renal cell carcinoma by intraoperative pathological examination. Radical nephrectomy was carried out in all the 5 cases. Results: All the 5 cases were confirmed as cystic renal clear cell carcinoma on pathology. In those cases, 1 case of multilocular cystic, 2 cases of tumor necrosis resulting in cyst formation, 2 cases of tumor arising in a preexisting simple renal cyst was found. 4 patients have been followed-up for a mean time of 3.5 months and the overall results were excellent without any evidence of cancer recurrence or metastasis. Conclusions: Cystic renal cell carcinoma, as a special type of renal cell carcinoma, probably can be diagnosed more accurately with the help of images examination. Radical nephrectomy is considered as the most effective approach of surgery at present and the prognosis is better for cystic renal cell carcinoma than other type of renal cell carcinoma.