Changes in Clinicopathological Characteristics of Renal Cell Carcinoma in the Past 25 Years: A Single-Center Experience

PURPOSE: We examined changes in the clinicopathologic characteristics of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in the past 25 years and aimed to obtain indicators for its diagnosis and treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The medical records of 563 patients with confirmed primary RCC after surgical treatment from 1985 to 2010 at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Patient and tumor characteristics were compared over 3 time periods (period 1: 1985-1994, period 2: 1995-2004, period 3: 2005-2010). RESULTS: Period 1 included 65 patients, period 2 included 183 patients, and period 3 included 315 patients, showing an exponential growth in the number of patients. Frequency was highest in the late 50s age group. The review of clinical symptoms showed that incidental diagnosis increased significantly. The tumor size at diagnosis gradually decreased and the proportion of small tumors less than 4 cm increased remarkably. Concerning tumor spread, organ-confined tumors (T(1-2)N(0)M(0)) increased and distant metastasis decreased. Histologically, the clear cell type made up the greatest proportion, about 90% in each period, but subtypes besides the clear cell type increased over the study period. The rate of nephron-sparing surgery increased, and exophytic masses were the most common. CONCLUSIONS: Our review of the recent 25 year's worth of data on RCC from Seoul St. Mary's Hospital showed that the incidental diagnosis of RCC increased over the study period in accordance with the development of screening tests. Tumor size decreased in accordance with the progress in imaging modalities. In the future, multicenter research will be needed to analyze the characteristics of whole renal cancer in Korea.