More People Diagnosed With Kidney Cancer in the United States

Original Medscape Article

By Will Boggs, MD
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 23 - The incidence of kidney cancer has increased significantly over the past three decades in the United States, according to a report in the November 16 online issue of The Journal of Urology.
"As imaging tests are ordered for a variety of reasons, incidental renal cancers are being increasingly found," Dr. Seth A. Strope from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, told Reuters Health by email.
"Since most of these tumors are now found in an asymptomatic state, internists should be vigilant for these findings on their scans."
Dr. Strope and colleagues used National Cancer Institute SEER cancer registry data for 1975 to 2006 to determine the kidney cancer incidence by age.
During this interval, the overall age-adjusted kidney cancer incidence increased 238%, from 7/100,000 to 17.6/100,000 adults. The annual rise was higher between 1976 and 1990 (3.6% annually) than between 1991 and 2006 (2.9% annually).
Renal tumors diagnosed after 1991 were more likely to be smaller and localized to the kidney than tumors diagnosed earlier.
All age groups showed an increase in renal cancer diagnoses during the more contemporary periods, with the most rapid increases appearing in the younger age groups during the second half of the study.
The fastest increase in renal cancer incidence was in the 20- to 39-year-old group, followed by the 60-to-69- and 70-to-79-year-old groups.
"The trend toward increased exposure to risk factors for kidney cancer at earlier ages combined with imaging may help explain why the youngest age group had the fastest increase in renal cancer relative to the other age groups," the researchers note.
"Rising incidence of kidney cancer points to the need to appropriately tailor therapy to individual patients," Dr. Strope said. "Younger patients would most benefit from kidney preservation through removal of only the tumor, while older patients may benefit from surveillance of small renal masses."
"Further research into the rising incidence of kidney cancer will need to focus on new risk factors," Dr. Strope added. "Exploration of large cohort studies with focus on risk factors in past versus more current years will be needed to determine these risk factors."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/s3edud
J Urol 2011;187:32-38.