Introduction:
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 2% of all cancers worldwide and causes 2% of cancer deaths. There are three types of RCC: clear cell (ccRCC), papillary (pRCC), and chromophobe (chRCC). The most common symptoms are hematuria (often periodic), pain in the lumbar region, weight loss, weakness, and periodic fever with night sweats. Often, in advanced stages, there is an abdominal tumor, enlargement of the cervical and supraclavicular lymph nodes, swelling of the lower limbs, and varicose veins.

Material and methods:
249 patients with RCC were enrolled in the study, including 203 (81.5%) with ccRCC, 32 (12.9%) with pRCC, and 14 (5.6%) with chRCC. We focused on a comparison of the surgical treatment outcomes between radical nephrectomy (RN) and nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) in terms of qualitative and quantitative characteristics.

Results:
It was estimated that factors such as the maximum tumor size, age at the day of surgery and sarcomatic transformation had the greatest impact on survival. Also, important factors are the cancer type, cancer stage, WHO grading, embolism, vascular invasion, nerve invasion, fat capsule infiltration and fibrous capsule infiltration.

Conclusions:
The results suggest that the above factors should be taken into account when choosing the appropriate treatment method as it allows the patient’s life to be extended and the number of postoperative complications to be reduced.