Superior Survival Rates, Stage-for-Stage
Five-year survival rates for UTSW patients with kidney cancer, broken down by stage and compared to national averages [SEER database, 2010-2021].
Types of Kidney Cancer
Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC)
- Clear Cell – 70%
- Papillary – 15%
- Chromophobe – 5%
- Translocation – 1-5%
- Unclassified and other less frequent subtypes - 5-10%
Risk Factors
- Smoking
- Obesity
- Industrial and other chemicals - trichloroethylene, aristolochic acid, and cadmium
- Gender – twice as frequent in men
- Age – average age, 64
- Advanced kidney disease
- High blood pressure
- Genetic conditions, such as von Hippel-Lindau syndrome or germline BAP-1 mutations (as discovered by our own investigators)
Stages
- Stage 1 - Tumor is smaller than seven centimeters (size of a tennis ball) and confined to the kidney
- Stage 2 – Still confined to the kidney, but the tumor is larger
- Stage 3 – Tumor invades neighboring blood vessels, surrounding fat, or spreads to nearby lymph nodes
- Stage 4 – Tumor spreads beyond
