About Kidney Cancer

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 51,190 people in the United States will be diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007 (31,590 men and 19,600 women); and about 12,890 people (8,080 men and 4,810 women) will die from this disease. These statistics include adults and children and include renal cell carcinoma and transitional cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis. The majority of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer are over the age of 45 with the highest incidences between the ages of 55 and 84.

According to the Kidney Cancer Association, 30% of kidney cancer patients show signs of advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) when diagnosed. Additionally, 15 to 25% of patients have metastatic disease at the time of their diagnosis, meaning their cancer has spread to other areas of the body.

According to the National Cancer Institute’s, Incidents and Mortality Rate Trends, kidney cancer incidence has been increasing at a rate of about 2 percent per year for the past 65 years; the reasons for this increase are unclear. The overall mortality rate from kidney cancer has also increased over the past two decades, although not as rapidly as the incidence rate. Kidney cancer incidence and mortality rates are nearly twice as high in men as in women. It is estimated that approximately $1.9 billion is spent in the United States each year on treatment of kidney cancer.

Unfortunately, kidney cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage because the tumors can become quite large without causing any symptoms or pain and because the kidneys are located deep inside the body and there is no means of seeing or feeling small tumors on the kidneys during a physical exam. In the 1980s, up to 80% of people had advanced kidney cancer when diagnosed. Today, with the help of advanced detection methods, only about 40% of patients present with advanced disease at diagnosis. Unfortunately, the risk of metastasis is directly related to the size of the primary tumor.

It is important to understand that with timely diagnosis and treatment, kidney cancer can be cured. If found early, the survival rate for patients with kidney cancer ranges from 79 to 100 percent. There are over 100,000 survivors of kidney cancer alive in the United States today. The information on this website primarily addresses the most common types of kidney cancer and is meant to serves as a supplement to the discussions you have with your physician.

The most common type of kidney cancer is Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC), which includes clear cell, papillary, chromophobe and collecting duct cancer types. Clear cell carcinoma accounts for 80% of all RCC cases, and most treatments are focused on this clear cell kidney cancer. Wilms’ tumor is a childhood cancer, making up 95% of pediatric kidney cancer cases.