Objective To analyze the characteristics and the prognostic significance of papillary renal cell carcinomas (PRCC). Methods Data about 113 patients with papillary renal cell carcinomas at the time of surgery were retrospectively collected from Changhai Hospital between 2005 and 2015. The prognostic factors were evaluated by Log-rank test．Kaplan-Meier survival curve was used to estimate the survival rate. Results The incidence rate of PRCC was 4.80％ in RCC．And the median age was 54.5 years; M/F ratio was 4.4:1. 55 cases were type I, and 18 were type II, the rest remained unknown.The one-year, 3-year and 5- year survival rates were 100%, 98.5%, 81.3%. The Log rank test showed that type (P=0.035), symptoms at presentation (P=0.008) were associated with survival time. The muhivariable Cox regression model revealed that regional lymph node involvemen（p=0.035）、cancer embolus（p=0.035）were independent predictors of aggressive PRCC. Conlusion PRCC is a distinct type of renal cell carcinoma exhibiting a low degree of malignancy, type II, with initial symptoms indicate worse prognosis.