Concurrent renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma: long-term follow-up study of 27 cases

To investigate the clinical manifestation, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of simultaneous occurrence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and urothelial carcinoma.

Twenty-seven consecutive patients with synchronous renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma treated in two tertiary medical centers from March 2005 to December 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Their clinical, pathological, and prognostic features were evaluated. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to estimate overall survival.

The median age was 69 years (range, 37–79 years). Seventeen patients presented with macroscopic hematuria, and 10 patients were asymptomatic. B-ultrasound, computed tomography (CT), and cystoscopy initially indicated RCC concurrent with ipsilateral upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) in 5 cases, RCC concurrent with contralateral UTUC in 1 case, RCC concurrent with bladder tumor in 17 cases, RCC concurrent with both ipsilateral UTUC and bladder tumor in 1 case, RCC in 2 cases and ureter carcinoma in 1 case. Different treatments were performed. The median follow-up time after surgery was 23 months. For patients with synchronous RCC and bladder tumor, there was no significant survival difference between patients treated with partial nephrectomy and radical nephrectomy. During follow up, four patients died of RCC, three patients died of non-oncological disease, one patient died of ureter carcinoma. The 3-year overall survival rate was 80.8%.

Concurrence of RCC and urothelial carcinoma is clinically rare. Treatments should be individualized. The prognosis for a patient with synchronous RCC and urothelial carcinoma is possibly associated with the more aggressive one.