What Are The Four Stages Of Kidney Cancer?

Kidney cancer stage designations give your physician a way of describing how far kidney cancer has progressed. Once a stage has been assigned, the doctor can begin to evaluate the best means for treatment.

The greatest value of assigning a stage is that it lets the doctor - and the patient - know how serious the disease has become and how far cancer cells have spread. Knowing whether a tumor is confined to the kidneys, or if it has spread to other tissues and parts of the body, is critical in determining a prognosis. So no doubt you can understand why knowing the stage is critical information in evaluating the best possible ways to treat the disease and bring about the most satisfactory outcome.


Medical professionals look at a variety of elements in determining what stage to assign to a particular kidney cancer case. Once the medical team has examined test results and other information, a number between one and four will be assigned. Some doctors will use Roman numerals (I, II, III, or IV), but this practice is more common among medical professionals than with the public at large.

Determining the kidney cancer stage also makes it possible to calculate life expectancy using established survival statistics for patients at similar stages. It's impossible to predict every individual case, of course. But doesn't it make sense that someone with Stage 1 kidney cancer (the "mildest" stage) will survive for a longer time that someone in Stage 4 (the most serious stage)?

Kidney cancer cases are assigned a stage based on the following descriptions.

Stage 1 - The tumor does not exceed 2.8 inches across, or about 7 centimeters. It is still completely localized, meaning it has not spread to other tissues, lymph nodes, or organs.

Stage 2 - This is a more serious stage than Stage 1 because the tumor is larger. It's now bigger than 7 centimeters or 2.8 inches. However, all cancer cells still appear to be located in the kidney, and there's no evidence of metastasis (spreading to other tissues or organs).

Stage 3 - Kidney cancer is more complicated to treat at Stage 3 because it has spread to the adjacent adrenal gland or a major vein near the kidney. It may also be found in no more than one lymph node.

Stage 4 - At Stage 4, kidney cancer has reached a very dangerous point. The malignancy has spread to more than one lymph node, or possibly to a distant organ (metastasis).

Doctors may also use a "grading" system along with a stage to further define how dangerous each case may be. The grade is a way of describing how cancer cells look when placed under a microscope.

If there's not much difference in appearance between the cancer cells and normal cells, a low grade will be designated. The more there's a difference in appearance between normal and abnormal, the higher the grade. Grade determinations are an indicator of how aggressive the cancer is and how fast it is probably going to spread. Cancers that receive a higher grade typically spread more quickly, and are therefore more dangerous.

To summarize, determining what stage kidney cancer has reached goes a long way toward deciding how to treat it.

In general, kidney cancer is more common among those who have passed their fiftieth birthday, and it happens twice as often to men as it does to women. American Cancer Society statistics reveal that there are around thirty thousand new kidney cancer cases diagnosed every year, and about twelve thousand people succumb to their disease.

Hopefully, as research toward finding a cure goes forward, these numbers will come down. But until that happens, using the kidney cancer stage and grade systems will provide medical professionals with valuable tools in saving as many lives as possible.

Related topics: kidney cancer stages and kidney cancer. Neal Kennedy is a retired TV and radio talk show host. To read more of his articles, click on kidney problems.