Team Prostate cancer Kidney cancer Renal cell carcinoma A lso known as hypernephroma or clear cell carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma is the most common tumor rising from the kidney, with about 30,000 cases per year diagnosed in the United States.
Smoking is the most prominent risk factor, though many cases arise in non-smokers.
Diagnosis before the age 40 is rare. Diagnosed early as a small tumor confined to the kidney, this disease may be cured by surgery. If the tumor is large or has spread to the local veins or lymph nodes, it can come back months to years later after complete surgical removal, either in the back where the tumor was or in the form of metastatic tumors of the lung, bone, liver, or brain. Sometimes, the tumor is so large that it has already spread as tumors in lymph nodes and other organs at the time of diagnosis, and in such cases surgery is not always helpful. Renal cell carcinoma, once it has spread, can grow slowly or rapidly.