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Clinical and Pathologic Staging of Renal Cell Carcinoma

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Book cover Clinical Management of Renal Tumors

Abstract

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), which accounts for 3% of adult malignancies, is the most lethal of the urologic cancers. It is the third most common urologic malignancy. following prostate and bladder cancers; however, approximately 40% of patients eventually die of progression of their RCC, while the mortality rates for prostate and bladder carcinomas are closer to 20%. Traditionally, RCC has been staged according to anatomic staging systems, such as the tumor, node, metastasis (TNM) system. This system takes into account tumor size and extent of local disease, nodal disease, and presence of metastases when grouping patients for both prognosis and treatment. Recent advances in understanding of the pathogenesis, molecular behavior, and progression of RCC, as well as recent investigation of clinical predictive factors, have led to suggestions of new algorithms for staging RCC patients.

This chapter reviews the clinical and pathologic staging of RCC according to current practices, and provides an overview of more recently proposed, comprehensive staging systems.

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Lake, A.M., Cimmino, C., Montie, J.E., Hafez, K.S. (2008). Clinical and Pathologic Staging of Renal Cell Carcinoma. In: Bukowski, R.M., Novick, A.C. (eds) Clinical Management of Renal Tumors. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-149-3_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-60327-149-3_9

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