Kidney Cancer

Epidemiology: Kidney cancer is the 13th most frequent malignancy, with 179,368 deaths, accounting for 1.8% of all cancer-related deaths [1, 2]. In 2020, 431,288 new cases were reported, accounting for 2.2% of all cancer cases [1]. The incidence and mortality rates were highest in Eastern Asia (108,503 cases and 54,658 deaths), followed by Northern America (76,975 cases and 16,791 deaths), and Central and Eastern Europe (49,772 cases and 20,238 deaths) [1]. Further, the global incidence and mortality were more significant in males (271,249 cases, cumulative risk 0.70; 115,600 deaths, cumulative risk 0.28) than in females (160,039 cases, cumulative risk 0.36; 63,768 deaths, cumulative risk 0.12) [1]. The age-standardized incidence rate was highest in North America (12.2 per 100,000), followed by North Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, which showed similar rates (10.3 per 100,000) [1]. The least incidence rate was observed in Central Africa (1.0 per 100,000), followed by Melanesia and South-Central Asia with incidences of 1.2 and 1.4 per 100,000, respectively [1]. In the United States (US), the incidence has increased from 7.1/100,000 in 1975 to 14.9/100,000 in 2016 [3]. However, kidney cancer incidence has plateaued after peaking at 16.0/100,000 in 2008 [3]. In the United States, people with kidney cancer are diagnosed at an average age of 64, with the majority being diagnosed between the ages of 65 and 74 [3]. The age-standardized mortality was 3.6/100,000 in the year 2016 [3]. In the United States, the age-standardized incidence rate was higher for black men (15.6/100,000) than for white men (14.0/100,000) [3].