Stages of Kidney Cancer

A May 2008 report from the University of California provided good news in the field of kidney cancer. It said that cancer was being diagnosed in the earlier, more treatable stages than even 10 years before. Kidney cancer is divided into four stages that help describe its progression and how far it may have spread throughout the body, if at all. To determine its stage, doctors look at the size of the tumor, how deep it has grown into the tissue, and whether it has spread to other tissues, organs or lymph nodes. The UOC noted that proper kidney cancer staging is important because the physician determines the course of treatment based on the stage the cancer is in at the time of diagnosis.

Stage 1

In Stage 1 kidney cancer, the tumor is still quite small. The National Cancer Institute reports that it is no larger than 7cm and remains localized to the area in which it was first found. The rate of five-year survival for kidney cancers that are found in Stage 1, according to statistics from the American Cancer Society, is 96 percent.

Stage 2

In Stage 2, the cancer remains only in the kidney, but the size of the tumor may have grown beyond 7cm. The University of Maryland Greenbaum Cancer Center states that even though the cancer is still in the kidney, it may have spread to surrounding kidney fatty tissue. The five-year survival rate for kidney cancer diagnosed at Stage 2 is 82 percent.

Stage 3

According to the American Cancer Society, Stage 3 kidney cancer can include one or more scenarios. The tumor may have grown larger and spread to the adrenal glands, neighboring tissues or blood vessels but has not spread past the layers of fibrous and fatty tissue that surround the kidney, or into any lymph nodes. The other scenario is that the size of the tumor may still be smaller or may have grown outside the kidney, but it has spread into at least one nearby lymph node. Stage 3 kidney cancer's five-year survival rate is 64 percent.

Stage 4

Stage 4 kidney cancer also includes several different possible scenarios: The tumor has grown into and beyond the outer fibrous layer of the kidney, and cancer cells have spread into one lymph node but have not spread to other lymph nodes or areas of the body. Or, the tumor may have not grown too much but is into or beyond the outer fibrous layer of the kidney, and cancerous cells have spread into more than one lymph node but not to other areas of the body. The final possible Stage 4 scenario, according to the ACS, is that the tumor can be any size, and it has not spread to nearby lymph nodes--but it has spread to other lymph nodes and organs of the body that are further away from the kidneys. Kidney cancers diagnosed in Stage 4 have a five-year survival rate of 23 percent.