Kidney cancer surgery statistics show a long-term shift toward partial nephrectomy for localized or regional disease, although complete nephrectomy remains common. Reported outcomes also differ by study population, tumor characteristics, baseline health, and follow-up period. The figures below preserve each source’s measurement year and study context.
Contents
- How often each operation was used
- Changes in surgery over time
- Differences by age and race or ethnicity
- Kidney function and chronic kidney disease
- Transfusion, conversion, and hospital stay
- Survival after partial or radical surgery
How often each operation was used
The Cancer Trends Progress Report 2025 measured surgery among patients aged 20 and older who were diagnosed with localized or regional kidney cancer. In 2021, 36.0% received partial nephrectomy, while 43.1% received complete nephrectomy. These percentages describe recorded treatment use in that population; they are not recommendations for an individual operation.
Several surgical series provide a different view because they describe selected patients treated at participating centers rather than a broad surveillance population. In a localized renal-cell-cancer series reported in PubMed 24885955, radical nephrectomy accounted for 68.3% of 4,326 cases. Elective partial nephrectomy accounted for 25.6%, and imperative partial nephrectomy accounted for 6.1%. The same series included 2,955 radical nephrectomies and had a median follow-up of 63 months.
One study of 4-to-7-centimeter renal cortical tumors included 873 patients who underwent radical nephrectomy and 286 who underwent partial nephrectomy (PubMed 19836797). Because the groups were drawn from a defined tumor-size study, their percentages should not be treated as national surgery rates.
Changes in surgery over time
The Cancer Trends Progress Report 2011/2012 reported a sustained increase in partial nephrectomy during the early 2000s among patients with localized or regional kidney cancer. The rate was 10.29% in 2000, 11.21% in 2001, 12.98% in 2002, 14.83% in 2003, and 17.14% in 2004. It was 17.25% in 2005, 18.83% in 2006, 20.88% in 2007, and 22.19% in 2008. That report described an annual percent change of 13.2% from 2000 through 2004.
During the same years, complete nephrectomy was recorded at 77.99% in 2000, 78.66% in 2001, 75.64% in 2002, 73.73% in 2003, and 70.09% in 2004. The reported rates were 69.55% in 2005, 66.74% in 2006, 65.08% in 2007, and 61.55% in 2008. In the 2011/2012 report, the most recent estimated rates were 22% for partial nephrectomy and 62% for complete nephrectomy.
The Cancer Trends Progress Report 2024 recorded a 35.3% partial nephrectomy rate in 2020 for localized or regional kidney cancer. The 2025 report recorded 36.0% in 2021. These later figures are from different report years and measurement years, so they should be read as reported estimates rather than as a calculated trend from the older series.
Differences by age and race or ethnicity
Age was associated with different recorded use of partial nephrectomy in the 2021 Cancer Trends Progress Report. Among patients aged 20 to 64, partial nephrectomy was used in 45.7% of cases and complete nephrectomy in 43.2%. Among patients aged 65 and older, partial nephrectomy was used in 31.3% and complete nephrectomy in 43.0%.
The report also gave surgery-use figures by race and ethnicity. Among non-Hispanic White patients, partial nephrectomy was 36.7% and complete nephrectomy was 43.4%. Among non-Hispanic Black patients, the corresponding figures were 33.2% and 37.2%. Among Hispanic patients, partial nephrectomy was 35.2% and complete nephrectomy was 44.5%. Among non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander patients, partial nephrectomy was 39.5% and complete nephrectomy was 43.3%.
| 2021 group | Partial nephrectomy | Complete nephrectomy |
|---|---|---|
| Ages 20–64 | 45.7% | 43.2% |
| Ages 65+ | 31.3% | 43.0% |
| Non-Hispanic White | 36.7% | 43.4% |
| Non-Hispanic Black | 33.2% | 37.2% |
| Hispanic | 35.2% | 44.5% |
| Non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander | 39.5% | 43.3% |
These categories describe differences in recorded treatment use. They do not establish that age, race, or ethnicity alone caused a particular treatment choice.
Kidney function and chronic kidney disease
The AHRQ evidence review in the NCBI Bookshelf reported measurable kidney-function differences between operations. Compared with partial nephrectomy, radical nephrectomy left final estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 3.6 mL/min/1.73 m2 lower on average. Radical nephrectomy was associated with a 1.3-to-2.7-times higher risk of chronic kidney disease, and the estimated incidence of chronic kidney disease after radical nephrectomy was 32%. Across the reviewed studies, however, radical-nephrectomy chronic-kidney-disease incidence ranged from 2% to 70%.
Compared with thermal ablation, radical nephrectomy lowered final eGFR by 9.9 mL/min/1.73 m2 more on average. Its risk of stage 3 chronic kidney disease was 3.48 times higher than with thermal ablation in the cited analysis. In the same analysis, partial nephrectomy versus thermal ablation had a 1.14-times higher risk of stage 3 chronic kidney disease, a 2.78-times higher risk of stage 4 chronic kidney disease, and a 1.09-times higher risk of end-stage renal disease.
Baseline differences were also visible in the 4-to-7-centimeter tumor study (PubMed 19836797). Chronic kidney disease at baseline was reported in 15% of patients treated with partial nephrectomy and 7% of those treated with radical nephrectomy. Patients treated with radical nephrectomy were 10% solitary-kidney patients, compared with 0.2% in the partial-nephrectomy group. These baseline imbalances are important when comparing later outcomes between the operations.
Transfusion, conversion, and hospital stay
The AHRQ/NCBI evidence review reported a higher average blood-transfusion rate for partial nephrectomy than for radical nephrectomy: 16.3% versus 7.3%. Compared with thermal ablation, partial nephrectomy had an average transfusion rate of 4.6% versus 0.4% for thermal ablation. A meta-analysis found a transfusion risk ratio of 0.75 favoring radical nephrectomy over partial nephrectomy, and a risk ratio of 1.62 favoring thermal ablation over partial nephrectomy.
The same review reported median conversion-to-open rates of 1.0% for radical nephrectomy and 3.5% for partial nephrectomy. Median length of stay was 7.0 days for both radical and partial nephrectomy. For radical nephrectomy versus thermal ablation, the reported lengths of stay were 5.3 and 3.8 days. For partial nephrectomy versus thermal ablation, they were 3.9 and 1.8 days.
These results show why surgery comparisons involve more than cancer control alone. Kidney preservation, transfusion, conversion, and hospitalization can move in different directions across procedures, and the reported averages come from particular evidence sets.
Survival after partial or radical surgery
In a prospective multicenter cohort of robot-assisted partial nephrectomy, the median follow-up was 29 months (PubMed 22546073). Positive parenchymal surgical margins occurred in 1.6% of patients. Three-year disease-free survival was 94.9%, three-year cancer-specific survival was 99.1%, and three-year overall survival was 97.3%.
The localized RCC series in PubMed 24885955 reported five-year overall survival of 81.2% after radical nephrectomy, 90.0% after elective partial nephrectomy, and 83.9% after imperative partial nephrectomy. At 10 years, overall survival was 64.7%, 74.6%, and 57.5%, respectively. In that series, elective partial nephrectomy versus radical nephrectomy had an adjusted overall-survival hazard ratio of 0.79.
The 4-to-7-centimeter renal cortical tumor study reported one-year overall survival of 96% after radical nephrectomy and 95% after partial nephrectomy. At three years, the figures were 88% and 91%; at five years, 79% and 80%; at seven years, 70% and 71%; and at 10 years, 58% and 51%, respectively.
Cancer-specific survival in the same study was 98% versus 99.5% at one year, 95% versus 98% at three years, 91% versus 97% at five years, 89% versus 93% at seven years, and 85% versus 90% at 10 years for radical versus partial nephrectomy.
An observational evidence review in PubMed 37533219 found hazard ratios significantly below 1 for overall survival after partial nephrectomy in 8 of 13 fully reviewed studies. Five of 13 studies had hazard ratios not significantly different from 1. The median hazard ratio was 0.80, with an interquartile range of 0.57 to 0.96 and an absolute range of 0.40 to 1.10.
In the tumor-size study, radical nephrectomy was associated with higher renal-cell-cancer death risk in univariate analysis (hazard ratio 2.16, 95% confidence interval 1.04–4.50). Multivariate analysis still suggested elevated risk, but the estimate was less certain (hazard ratio 1.97, 95% confidence interval 0.92–4.20). These observational findings describe associations within the reported cohorts; they do not by themselves prove that the operation caused the survival difference.