Regression of pulmonary metastases following nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma has occurred in two patients. In one patient, a hepatopathy also disappeared, and the patient remained free from disease for 16 years. In the other patient, following nephrectomy there was disappearance of hypercalcemia, presumably due to removal of a source of production of a parahormone-like polypeptide. It appears that older males with only pulmonary metastases make up the majority of patients in whom regression of metastases after nephrectomy has been observed. Hormonal and immunologic factors are implicated in this phenomenon. There is a sound rationale for nephrectomy in the presence of metastatic renal cell carcinoma.
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Garfield et al. (1972) studied this question.
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