ABSTRACT
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for 3% of adult solid tumors, and each year 30 000 new cases in the USA and 20 000 in the European Union are detected1. Men are twice as often afflicted as women, usually between the ages of 50 and 70. Despite modern imaging techniques and early diagnosis, one-third of patients present with metastatic disease and up to 50% with localized disease progress after radical nephrectomy. An increase of more than 30% in incidence has been observed in the past decade, owing to better imaging, early diagnosis and environmental factors. The outcome of patients treated for RCC 10-20 years ago showed a substantially lower 5-year cancer-specific survival rate, but today patients with localized and advanced disease have an improved prognosis2.
