We determine prognostic factors for renal cell carcinoma using the revised 1999 General Rule for Clinical and Pathological Studies on Renal Cell Carcinoma. The records of 176 patients undergoing partial and redical nephrectomy at our hospital between 1989 and 1998 were reviewed. Renal cell carcinoma grade and clinical stage were evaluated using the 1997 TNM criteria, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to determine 5-year cancer specific survival for all patients groups. Univariate analysis using log rank sum tests was performed to evaluate the prognostic factors of tumor grade, clinical stage, and tumor diameter. We found that renal cell carcinoma with small diameter had no advanced malignancy or clinical disease stage, and that malignancy and clinical stage advance with increase in tumor diameter, with resultant decrease in survival rate. We think that it is important to detect renal tumor while its diameter is small, through widespread use of examination by imaging in health check.