ABSTRACT
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 2% of all cancers, with a world-wide annual increase of 1.5-5.9%1,2. Meanageat time of diagnosis is about 70 years, and there is a predominance of men over women in the range of 1.5-3.1-fold. Mortality from RCC is increasing in parallel with trends in incidence1. At present, 25-30% of patients with RCC have overt metastases at initial presentation and, in addition, a substantial fraction of patients have subclinical metastases at that time, explaining the hitherto unsatisfactory outcome of treatment3,4.
