Late recurrence of renal cell carcinoma: retrospective and collaborative study of the Japanese Society of Renal Cancer

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate in collaboration the clinical features of late recurrence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Late recurrence is one of the specific biologic behaviors of RCC; however, the clinical and pathologic features of the late recurrence of RCC are not fully understood.

Methods: A total of 470 patients who had undergone curative treatment of RCC and had not developed recurrence within 10 years of follow-up were documented from 13 institutions of the board members of the Japanese Society of Renal Cancer. Multivariate analysis with Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the pathologic and clinical factors affecting the late recurrence and survival of patients with RCC ≥10 years after surgery. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method.

Results: During the 10-28-year (median 13.2) observation period, 30 patients (6.4%) developed a late recurrence. The disease-free survival rate at 15 and 20 years was 89.5% and 78.4%, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that lymph node metastasis was the only factor to predict for late recurrence (P = .0334). Age at nephrectomy was the only prognostic factor for overall survival on multivariate analysis (P < .0001). Of the 470 patients, 30 had developed late recurrence in 44 sites, including the lung (36.4%), kidney (25%), and bone (13.6%), followed by the brain, pancreas, adrenal gland, lymph nodes, and liver. Late recurrences in the lung or kidney were observed at any time ≥10 years after nephrectomy.

Conclusions: Late recurrence of RCC after initial treatment is not a rare event, and lifelong follow-up is necessary.