[Renal metastases from cancer. Apropos of 9 cases and review of the literature].

We report 9 cases of secondary carcinomas of the kidney. The primary source of cancer was found in the lungs (7 cases), in the larynx (one case) and in the pyriform sinus. Clinical or radiologic signs of these renal metastases were comparable to primary carcinomas of kidney. The mean survival outlook for these patients was 8.1 months. Radical nephrectomy was performed in five cases. In a patient previously treated for a primary carcinoma and especially for a lung carcinoma, when a solid renal mass of kidney is discovered the hypothesis of a renal metastasis must be kept in mind. Because of lack of specific feature of these tumours and because of their often poor prognosis further investigations such as percutaneous fine needle aspiration for cytopathologic study must be considered.