Kidney Cancer Prognosis: What Are Survival Rates?

Survival rates indicate the percentage of people with a certain type and stage of cancer who survive the disease for a specific period of time after their diagnosis. In most cases, kidney cancer statistics refer to the five-year survival rate. The five-year survival rate is the percentage of people who are alive five years after their diagnosis, whether they have few or no signs or symptoms of kidney cancer, are free of disease, or are receiving treatment. Survival rates are based on large groups of people, and they cannot be used to predict what will happen to a particular patient. No two patients are exactly alike, and kidney cancer treatment and responses to treatment vary greatly.

 

Kidney Cancer Prognosis: Survival Rates

Survival rates can be calculated by different methods for different purposes. The kidney cancer survival rates presented here are based on the relative survival rate. The relative survival rate measures the survival of kidney cancer patients in comparison to the general population to estimate the effect of cancer. The overall five-year relative kidney cancer survival rate for 1995-2001 was 64.6 percent. The five-year relative kidney cancer survival rates by race and sex were:

 

• 64.7 percent for Caucasian men
• 64.5 percent for Caucasian women
• 61.8 percent for African American men
• 65.9 percent for African American women.