Objectives: Isolated local recurrence of renal cell carcinoma after radical nephrectomy is very uncommon and the effect of aggressive surgical management of this clinical entity remains controversial. We report our experience with 10 such cases.
Methods: Between 1994 and 2002, 10 patients with isolated local recurrence of renal cell carcinoma without any evidence of metastatic disease after radical nephrectomy were treated at our department. The mean patient age was 51.7 years (range 26 to 74); 7 patients were men and 3 were women. All patients underwent extensive surgery for local recurrence.
Results: Only 3 patients were symptomatic, and the others were diagnosed during routine follow-up examinations. The mean time to local recurrence was 33.6 months (range 3 to 68), and the mean size of the recurrent tumor was 8.45 cm (range 3 to 12). An aggressive surgical approach was taken in all patients. One patient died in the postoperative period because of a surgical complication. Of the remaining 9 patients, 2 died of metastatic disease after a mean survival of 8.5 months (range 3 to 14). Seven patients were alive with a mean survival of 16.6 months (range 3 to 38+).
Conclusions: We believe that patients with isolated local recurrence after radical nephrectomy may benefit from an aggressive surgical approach, but this kind of surgery may also have significant complications.