What is Kidney Cancer?
Kidney cancer begins in the kidneys, two large, bean-shaped organs - one located to the left, and the other to the right of the backbone. Kidney cancer may also be referred to as renal cancer.
About 60,920 new cases of kidney cancer in the US were expected to be diagnosed in 2011, according to the American Cancer Society. Kidney cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in both men and women.
For reasons that are not totally clear, the incidence of kidney cancer has been rising slowly since the 1970s. Part of this may be due to the development of newer imaging tests such as CT scans, which have picked up some cancers that may never have been found otherwise.
At Stanford Cancer Center, you will benefit from our highly experienced Urologic Cancer physicians, who treat a wide range and high volume of kidney cancers, including the most advanced tumors.
Types
There are a few types of kidney cancer:
- renal cell carcinoma
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is by far the most common type of kidney cancer. About 9 out of 10 kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas.
Although RCC usually grows as a single mass (tumor) within a kidney, sometimes there are 2 or more tumors in one kidney or even tumors in both kidneys at the same time. Some of these cancers are noticed only after they have become quite large, but most are found before they metastasize (spread) to distant organs in the body. - transitional cell carcinoma
Of every 100 cancers in the kidney, about 5 to 10 are transitional cell carcinomas, also known as urothelial carcinomas. Transitional cell carcinomas don't start in the kidney itself, but instead begin in the renal pelvis (where the urine goes before it enters the ureter). About 9 out of 10 transitional cell carcinomas of the kidney are curable if they are found at an early stage. - Wilm’s tumor
Nephroblastomas, more commonly called Wilms tumors, almost always occur in children. This type of cancer is very rare among adults. - renal sarcoma
Renal sarcomas are a rare type of kidney cancer (less than 1% of all kidney tumors) that begin in the blood vessels or connective tissue of the kidney.
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