Survival rates for kidney cancer by TNM stage
The 5-year survival rate refers to the percentage of patients who live at least 5 years after their cancer is found. Keep in mind that many of these patients live much longer than 5 years after their cancer is found and treated. And survival rates are based on patients whose cancer was found and treated more than 5 years ago. Better treatments now may mean that patients have a better outlook.
The numbers below come from the National Cancer Data Base and are based on patients whose cancer was found in the years 2001 and 2002. These are observedsurvival rates. They include people with kidney cancer who may have later died from other causes, such as heart disease. People with kidney cancer tend to be older and may have other serious health conditions. Therefore, the percentage of people surviving the cancer itself is likely to be higher.
Stage | 5-Year Survival Rate | ||
I | 81% | ||
II | 74% | ||
III | 53% | ||
IV | 8% | ||
While these numbers give an overall picture, every person is different. Statistics can’t predict what will happen in your case. Talk with your cancer care team if you have questions about your own chances of a cure, or how long you might survive your cancer. They know your situation best.
Survival rates in the UCLA Integrated Staging System
Researchers at UCLA have published a study evaluating their system in patients treated there from 1989 to 2005, looking at survival rates of the low-, intermediate- and high-risk groups. All of these patients at least had surgery to remove the tumor in the kidney. These numbers are disease-specific-survival rates, meaning they only take into account people who died from their kidney cancer (and not other causes).
For patients with localized kidney cancer (cancer that had not spread to the lymph nodes or distant organs), 5-year survival rates were 97% for the low-risk group, 81% for intermediate-risk group, and 62% for the high-risk group.
For patients with kidney cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes or distant organs when it was first found, 5-year survival rates were 41% for the low-risk group, 18% for intermediate-risk group, and 8% for the high-risk group.