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A review of 212 cases of renal cell carcinoma diagnosed during a 40-year period revealed an increasing number of cases detected during imaging studies performed for nonurological reasons. These so-called incidentally detected renal cell carcinomas are increasing in incidence, generally of low stage and associated with significantly improved survival, and they constitute the majority of the patients with improved prognosis during the recent 2 decades. The clinical course and disease stage in patients who continue to present with symptoms of the disease have not changed in the last 40 years. These data suggest that with currently available treatments for renal cell carcinoma a principal method to improve the prognosis of this disease would be through earlier detection. Low disease incidence would mitigate against morphological screening but case finding techniques may prove useful.

The records of 386 patients with diagnosed transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder were reviewed to determine a correlation between smoking history, and stage, grade and number of recurrences of transitional cell carcinoma. A significant association was detected between smoking history and all 3 variables. Within this military population 79 per cent of the patients were noted to have a smoking history, which is higher than most previously studied groups. These data further confirm the association between cigarette smoking and transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder, and suggest that cigarette smoking within the military population may portend a much higher cancer risk in this group.