OBJECTIVE. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was first described in 1826. We analyse retrospectively 58 pts who underwent radical nephrectomy and determine their survival MATERIALS: Between Januray 1974 and December 1985, 58 pts with RCC underwent radical nephrectomy (nephrectomy and lymphadenectomy). The series comprised 40 males and 18 females (ratio 2.2:1), with a mean age of 66 years (r 13-85). RESULTS: Mean time of symptoms prior to treatment was 1 to 6 months 16 pts (27,5%), and more than 6 monts 42 pts (71,8%). Robson classification of the tumor showed 12 pts stage I (20,7%), 1 stage II (1,7%), 6 stage III (10,3%) and 31 stage IV (53,5%); in 8 pts (13,8%) stage unknown since these pts had surgery in other hospital.Tumor grade was weel differentiated in 21 pts (36,2%), moderatelly differentiated in 20 (34,5%), and poorly differentiated in 4 (6,9%); tumor grade was unknown in 13 (22,4%). Six pts (6,4%) had tumors between 5-1 Ocm, and 33 pts (57%) tumors more than 10cm; in 19 pts (32,7%) tumor size was unknown. There were 5 post-op deathts (8,6%). Five-year survival for stage I was 50% and 41,7% at 10 years. In this group, 2 pts died because of distal metastatic disease at 12 and 16 years, respectively. The only pt in stage II survived for 9 years, at which time developed lung metastasis, dying from the disease. Two-year survival for stage III was 50%, then all pts lost to follow-up. For stage IV, all pts (31/31 - 100%) died within 3 years from surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Our survival is similar to that described in the literaure, as well as surgical mortality. RCC, in their initial stages, will rescue 50% of pts at 5 years, and 41,7% at 10 years.