Kidney Cancer Staging
The stage of your cancer is the terminology doctors use to communicate the size of a tumor and where and how deeply it has spread. When you are diagnosed with kidney cancer, the doctor needs to know the type of kidney cancer you have and the stage the cancer is in.
The following system is used to stage your kidney cancer:
| TX | Primary tumor cannot be assessed |
| T0 | No evidence of primary tumor |
| T1 | Tumor ²7 cm in greatest dimension, limited to the kidney |
| T1a | Tumor ²4 cm in greatest dimension, limited to the kidney |
| T1b | Tumor >4 cm but not >7 cm in greatest dimension, limited to the kidney |
| T2 | Tumor >7 cm in greatest dimension, limited to the kidney |
| T2a | Tumor >7 cm but ²10 cm in greatest dimension, limited to the kidney. |
| T2b | Tumor >10 cm, limited to the kidney |
| T3 | Tumor extends into major veins or perinephric tissues, but not into the ipsilateral adrenal gland and not beyond the connective tissue covering of the kidney, known as Gerota fascia |
| T3a | Tumor grossly extends into the renal vein or its segmental (muscle-containing) branches, or tumor invades perirenal and/or renal sinus fat but not beyond Gerota fascia |
| T3b | Tumor grossly extends into the vena cava below the diaphragm |
| T3c | Tumor grossly extends into the vena cava above the diaphragm or invades the wall of the vena cava |
| T4 | Tumor invades beyond Gerota fascia (including contiguous extension into the ipsilateral adrenal gland) |

