Kidney Cancer Awareness Month


Renal (Kidney) Cancer
Kidney cancer is the third most commonly occurring genitourinary cancer in adults.  There are approximately 54,000 new cancer cases each year in the United States, and the incidence of kidney cancer appears to be on the rise.

Kidney cancer tends to occur most commonly in individuals over the age of 40 and is more common in men than in women.  Most kidney cancers occur spontaneously, although some are associated with hereditary conditions, including von Hippel-Lindau disease and hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma.  Potential risk factors include cigarette smoking, obesity and high blood pressure. 

Although most growths that arise in the kidneys are cancers, about 20% to 25% of kidney tumors are benign.  The most common types of benign kidney tumors are oncocytoma and angiomyolipoma.  Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common type of kidney cancer.   There are several sub-types of renal cell carcinoma.  Clear cell (conventional) renal cell carcinoma is the most common sub-type and represents greater than 80% of renal cell carcinomas.

Other sub-types include:
Papillary renal cell carcinoma
Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma
Collecting duct renal cell carcinoma
Medullary renal cell carcinoma
Papillary and chromophobe variants of renal cell carcinoma are typically less aggressive than clear cell renal cell carcinoma.  Collecting duct and medullary sub-types are very aggressive cancers characterized by relatively poor outcomes.

Local Kidney Cancer
Approximately 60% of kidney cancers are diagnosed at a localized stage (cancer confined to kidney without evidence of spread).  Localized cancers may be detected incidentally without causing symptoms or may be associated with hematuria (blood in the urine), flank pain or abdominal discomfort.  Surgery is the most effective treatment, although in some cases (very small tumors or in patients who are not suitable candidates for surgery) other ablative techniques are available.  Following surgical treatment, approximately 20% to 30% of patients with localized kidney cancers relapse (develop recurrent disease).  The overall 5-year survival for patients with localized kidney cancer is approximately 90%.

Advanced Kidney Cancer
Approximately 40% of kidney cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage characterized by involvement of surrounding structures, spread to lymph nodes or metastasis to more distant sites.  These tumors tend to be larger, and are more commonly high-grade and carry a higher risk of recurrence following treatment.  Because chemotherapy and radiation are ineffective against kidney cancer, surgery still holds an important role in the management of advanced kidney cancer, and may even be recommended in the setting of metastatic disease.  Common sites of metastatic spread include the lung, bone and brain.  The overall 5-year survival for regionally advanced kidney cancer (spread to adjacent structures and lymph nodes) is approximately 60% but decreases to 10% for distant metastatic disease.

Info from: https://ufhealth.org/uf-health-urologic-cancer-center/renal-kidney-cancer

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