Should radical nephrectomy include ipsilateral adrenalectomy?
We reevaluated 46 patients with histopathologically proven stage A and B renal cell carcinoma, who underwent radical nephrectomy for the presence of ipsilateral adrenal gland in the surgical specimens. It turned out that 23 specimens included ipsilateral adrenals. Two patients without adrenalectomy relapsed locally, whereas no local recurrence was noted in patients whose adrenals were removed. Three years' disease-free survival rates (DFS) for patients with and without adrenalectomy were 100% and 78%, respectively. Although no statistical difference was found in terms of DFS between patients with and without adrenalectomy, we suggest the removal of the ipsilateral adrenal gland if technically feasible.