RENAL-CELL CARCINOMA - PHYSIOLOGY, DIAGNOSIS, AND THERAPY

Renal call carcinoma (RCC) is the most common malignancy of the kidney in adults. Heredity appears to play a role within the etiology of RCC. Recent evidence indicates that deletions and translocations involving the short arm of chromosome 3 are important for the oncogenesis and tumor progression of RCC. Overt symptoms accompanying RCC are often associated with advanced local or distant disease. There is an increased number of patients in whom the diagnosis of RCC is made incidentally in cases when the tumor is confined to the kidney. This finding is responsible for the fact that the prognosis is better in this group of patients. Surgical extirpation is the cornerstone of therapy of localized RCC. However, in the presence of metastatic disease, immunotherapy seems to be the most effective adjuvant therapy.