Genitourinary Oncology Program

Patient and Family Education

Kidney Cancer (Renal Cancer)

Stages

Once kidney cancer has been diagnosed, more testing will be done to see how far the cancer has spread--a process called staging. Your treatment options will vary depending on the stage of your disease.

The following stages are used for renal cell cancer:

Stage I: Cancer is found only in the kidney.
Stage II: Cancer has spread to the fatty tissue immediately around the kidney, but the cancer has not spread beyond this to the capsule that contains the kidney.
Stage III: Cancer has spread to the main blood vessel that carries clean blood from the kidney (renal vein), to the blood vessel that carries blood from the lower part of the body to the heart (inferior vena cava), or to lymph nodes around the kidney.
Stage IV: Cancer has spread to nearby organs such as the bowel or pancreas or has spread to other places in the body such as the lungs.
Recurrent: Recurrent disease means that the cancer has come back (recurred) after it has been treated. It may come back in the original area or in another part of the body.

This page was last updated on: October 6, 2009.