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What Is The Kidney Cancer Survival Rate?

This article provides research data on kidney cancer survival rates, including rates for various demographic groups. It also shows the rate of survival in cases where the most common form of kidney cancer, known as renal cell carcinoma, has been diagnosed.

Author: Neal Kennedy
Date: Nov 22, 2010 - 4:43:39 PM

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When calculating a kidney cancer survival rate, you have to look at factors that relate not only to the cancer itself, but also to the patient whose kidney cancer has been diagnosed.

The most important factors connected to kidney cancer itself include the type of cancer, the stage or degree of progress, grade (a measure of how quickly the cancer is likely to spread), and the location. Naturally, the survival rate is higher when kidney cancer is diagnosed early and has not spread to other tissues or organs. As far as patient-related factors are concerned, researchers must take age, ability to undergo treatment, and general state of health into consideration in coming up with their numbers.

Statistics compiled by researchers who have examined data using these factors have produced a general kidney cancer survival rate chart. The statistics quoted below focus only on the most common type of kidney cancer, known as renal cell carcinoma. It occurs much more often than other types.

Kidney cancer survival rates are generally shown as the percentage of patients with the same kind of cancer at the same stage who are still alive after a certain period of time.

It should be noted, of course, that every case is different and there's no way to accurately predict how long someone with kidney cancer will live after treatment. The survival rate is a broad-based number based on thousands of cases.

As is the case with most other diseases, the kidney cancer survival rate is measured in five year periods. Put another way, a certain percentage of those who have kidney cancer will survive for at least five years.

The kidney cancer survival rate can be viewed through a number of different demographic categories.. The statistics below measure the survival rate of individuals who have been diagnosed with kidney cancer versus the general population. Data was taken from a research study done in 1995-2001.

During this period, the comprehensive kidney cancer survival rate was approximately 65 percent.

The data was also broken into categories that specified race and gender.

* 64.7 percent of Caucasian males survived for at least five years

* The statistic was almost exactly the same for Caucasian women at 64.5 percent.

* African American men had a slightly lower survival rate at 61.8 percent.

* The highest survival rate was in the category of African American women at 65.9 percent

The survival rate also depends on the stage the cancer has reached by the time it's diagnosed. A higher stage assignment means the cancer has spread more and will therefore be more difficult to treat.

Approximately 53 percent of kidney cancer cases are found before cancer cells have spread beyond the kidneys.

One case of every five that is diagnosed (20 percent) is discovered after cancer cells have reached the lymph nodes or other areas close to the kidneys.

22 percent of diagnoses are made when kidney cancer has reached other tissues and organs beyond the kidneys.

In the remaining percentage of cases, staging information was unclear.

Of course, survival rates were highest for patients whose cancer was diagnosed in an earlier stage.

* 9 out of 10 patients who were diagnosed when cancer was confined to the kidneys survived at least five years.

* The numbers were less encouraging when cancer had spread to the immediate region around the kidneys, with only 60 percent reaching the five year survival mark.

* Only about one patient in ten reached the five year survival mark when cancer cells had reached distant parts of the body.

* Information on stages was unclear, unknown or undiagnosed for the rest of the patients in the study.

National Cancer Institute research reports that the highest percentage of kidney cancer cases occur in the US, Canada, Northern Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. The lowest prevalence of kidney cancer is in China, the Philippines, and Thailand. Of all cancer cases diagnosed in the United States, 1 in every 33 is kidney cancer.

Two smokers develop kidney cancer for every non-smoker who gets the disease. The risk for renal pelvis cancer is even greater for smokers at 4 to 1.

Related topics: kidney cancer survival rate data and cancer of the kidney. Neal Kennedy is a retired TV and radio talk show host. To read more of his articles, click on kidneys.

Related topics: kidney cancer survival rate data and cancer of the kidney. Neal Kennedy is a retired TV and radio talk show host. To read more of his articles, click on kidneys.

View all articles by Neal Kennedy

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