Surgical removal of bone and muscle metastases of renal cancer

Abstract

Fifteen men and six women with renal cancer underwent surgical removal of metastatic lesions in bone (19 patients) or muscle (two patients). The operation was carried out 2 years before nephrectomy/renal resection in two patients, on the same occasion in four, and 1–196 months after in 15. Surgical interventions of various kinds were undertaken, resulting in the loss of a lower limb in seven patients and an upper limb in one. The observed 5-year survival was 4 out of 10. Six patients were alive at follow-up, five of them without evidence of disease. Eight of the remaining 15 patients died of an unrelated disease (five without evidence of tumor); the other seven patients died of metastatic tumor disease. Local recurrence was diagnosed, and removed, in two patients. The results compare favourably with reports on surgically removed pulmonary metastases of renal cancer and seem to justify an aggressive attitude towards solitary bone and muscle metastases of renal cancer.