Kidney Cancer

A patient whose kidney cancer is confined to the kidney and has not spread into the lymph nodes or to other organs of the body, statistically stands the best chance of long-term survival. Some patients in this category will have their kidney and primary tumour removed by surgery and will never have any recurrence of the disease. In that sense they may be deemed ‘cured’. However, as with all cancers, there can never be complete certainty that cancer cells, carried through the lymphatic system and the blood, will not form into secondary tumours (metastases). Regular check-ups are essential for all kidney cancer patients, including those, who after surgery, are apparently free of disease.

According to medical statistics, patients in whom the disease has spread beyond the kidney are less likely to do well. If the disease has spread to one or more organs it is vitally important to have access to treatment that can stabilise or even eliminate secondary tumours. Some patients with secondary tumours respond well to further treatment (which is usually in the form of targeted therapy); others do not respond or respond only temporarily. We do not fully understand the reasons for this variation. One explanation is that kidney cancer cells vary in their level of aggressiveness from patient to patient. This relates mainly to the degree of abnormality of the cells, i.e. how different they are from normal cells. The higher the ‘grade’ of the kidney cancer cells, the more aggressive they are and the more likely they are to spread quickly. Some patients with secondary tumours live with their disease for a long time. A small proportion are ‘cured’ by treatment in the sense that their secondary tumours disappear completely. However even in these cases a recurrence can never be ruled out.

With most cancers there is no direct cause and kidney cancer is no exception. For many people the cause of the cancer is never found. However, certain lifestyle factors can increase the risk of developing the disease;

Kidney cancer is the eighth most common cancer in adults in the UK, with 10,380 new cases diagnosed in 2012 and 4,252 deaths from kidney cancer in 2012. In UK men, it is the seventh most common cancer, with 6,459 new cases diagnosed in 2012, and in UK women it ranks tenth with 3,921 new cases diagnosed in 2012. This is a male to female ratio of 16:10 for incidence in the UK (data from Cancer Research UK).

It has been estimated that the lifetime risk of developing kidney cancer is 1 in 52 for men and 1 in 87 for women (Cancer Research UK).

Kidney cancer accounts for 4% of all new cases of cancer diagnosed in men and just fewer than 2% of all cancers in women in the UK (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer).

Kidney cancer is therefore a relatively rare cancer; however, some reports have indicated an increasing incidence globally, including the UK. This increase is due in part to the wider application of diagnostic imaging techniques leading to the incidental detection of asymptomatic kidney tumours.