Kidney Cancer Survival Rates by Age

According to the American Cancer Society, the relative survival rate for people of all ages and all stages of kidney cancer is 76%, meaning people with kidney cancer are about 76% as likely as people in the general population to live at least 5 years.

Your kidneys are a pair of fist-sized organs found in the back of your abdomen that filter waste from your blood.

The stage of your kidney cancer is the factor with the strongest influence on your chances of survival. People with cancer isolated to the kidney have a 5-year relative survival rate of 93% , but this drops to 15% if the cancer reaches distant areas.

Age is another important factor that influences your outlook. Younger age at the time of your diagnosis is associated with a better chance of surviving at least 5 years.

In this article, we examine how age and other factors influence the survival rate of kidney cancer.

Kidney cancer statistics

The American Cancer Association estimates that about 81,800 people will develop kidney cancer in the United States in 2023. The lifetime risk for men is about 1 in 46 and for women is 1 in 80.

The risk of developing kidney cancer increases with age. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 65 to 74.

Other risk factors for kidney cancer include:

• having advanced kidney disease
• smoking
• obesity
• family history
• high blood pressure