Small renal-cell carcinomas: clinical and imaging features.
The authors review the clinical, pathological and imaging characteristics of 20 patients with histological confirmation of 23 renal-cell carcinomas measuring < or = 3 cm in size. All lesions were unilateral. All patients were submitted to CT investigations, which identified 20 tumours (86%) and failed to identify 3 small-sized neoplastic nodular formations (0.4, 0.4, 0.8 cm) in patients with double tumour localisation in the same kidney. 15 patients underwent ultrasonography (US) which detected 11 carcinomas out of 17 (65%); of the 6 tumours (in 4 patients) not detected by US, 4 were identified by CT; 2 of these patients were subsequently re-examined by US with identification of the tumour. US failed to detect the 2 small tumours unidentified by CT (the third patient did not undergo US). 17 patients had no renal symptoms, and identification of the tumour was an incidental finding. The increasingly widespread use of US and CT enables a large number of kidneys to be examined and thus permits identification of a greater number of small-sized kidney tumours, allowing early surgical intervention with a greater chance of success. The technical options in surgical therapy may be multiple, though the use of any operation other than nephrectomy tends to be limited by the possible presence of small neoplastic nodular formations in the same kidney, which may not be detectable by US or CT owing to their very small size.