Prognosis
A study in Turkey that used the 1997 AJCC staging system estimated the five-year survival rate to be 90% for stage I, 51% for stage II, 22% for stage III and 4.6% for stage IV. The same study estimated the median survival time to be 7.7 years for stage I, 5.0 years for stage II, 3.1 years for stage III and 1.1 years for stage IV.
For those that have tumor recurrence after surgery, the prognosis is generally poor. Renal cell carcinoma does not generally respond to chemotherapy or radiation. Immunotherapy, which attempts to induce the body to attack the remaining cancer cells, has shown promise. Recent trials are testing newer agents, though the current complete remission rate with these approaches are still low, around 12-20% in most series. Most recently, treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors including nexavar, pazopanib, and rapamycin have shown promise in improving the prognosis for advanced RCC since 2004.
Read more about this topic: Renal Cell Carcinoma