Vladimír Bartoš1, Oľga Zacharová1, Dušan Pokorný1, Roman Mráz2, Juraj Mikuláš2, Peter Laurinc2
Background: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) quite frequently exhibits necrotic changes that probably represent an important histological prognostic parameter. Aim: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and the extent of tumour necroses in the set of conventional clear cell RCCs and to evaluate their relationship with other basic clinico-pathological parameters. Material and methods: We retrospectively evaluated representative cases of histologically verified clear cell RCCs, which had been diagnosed at the Department of Pathological Anatomy in Faculty Hospital in Zilina from January 2010 to March 2012. A complete study group consisted of 100 cancers from 100 patients (64 men, 36 women), who were divided into group A (without necroses), and group B (with necroses). Results: Necrotic changes were present in 39 % of all cases assessed. In this group, we more frequently found a male gender, lower degree of differentiation (grading), larger average size of lesions, common sarcomatoid changes, and more advanced stage of disease in comparison with group without tumour necroses. In addition, all cases with proven regional lymph node metastases occurred only in group B. Conclusion: In our study, we showed frequent necrotic changes in clear cell RCCs. Although it would be necessary to provide a long-term follow-up of the patients and clinical outcome of the disease for definite determination of their prognostic significance, based on our results we can confirm that RCCs with necroses are associated with other unfavourable histopathological parameters and thus they indicate a worse prognosis.