(Backgrounds) The prognosis of patients with incidentally detected renal cell carcinoma is better than that of patients with symptomatic renal cell carcinoma. These incidentalomas include those discovered by ultrasonography at health check-up and those found during examinations for unrelated disease. In this study, we investigated the prognosis of the patients of the health check-up group and the unrelated disease group.
(Methods) From April 1987 to March 1997, 263 patients with renal cell carcinoma were treated in our department including 166 incidentalomas (63.1%). The occasion of incidental detection was divided into 2 groups; 90 cases as health check-up group and 76 cases as unrelated disease group.
(Results) The mean age was 52.9±9.7 years for health check-up group and 65.1±11.4 years for unrelated disease group (p<0.01). The mean evaluated tumor size was 3.6±1.6cm for health check-up group and 4.4±2.6cm for unrelated disease group (p<0.05). The survival rates were significantly different in the two groups (p<0.01); the 5- and 10-year survival rate for health check-up group was 91.5% and 55.9%, respectively and for unrelated disease group 79.4% and 66.1%, respectively.
(Conclusion) These results suggested that examination by ultrasonography at health check-up lead to detection of smaller renal cell carcinoma and improve the prognosis further.