Patients with papillary renal cell carcinoma (pRCC) have a low risk of tumor recurrence and cancer-related death after surgery, according to a study of 577 pRCC patients (mean age 62.4 years) across Italy.

Most patients (62%) had undergone radical nephrectomy surgery for tumors ranging in size from 3-7 cm (median 4.3 cm). After a median follow-up of 39.2 months, 81% of these individuals were alive and disease-free, 14% had experienced disease progression, 11% had died from the disease, and 5% had died from other causes, researchers reported in BJU International (2012;109:1140-1146).

The 10-year estimated recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival were 73.1% and 83.3%, respectively.

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