Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common adult kidney cancer, accounting for about 90% of adult renal malignancies. In the United States, kidney and renal pelvis cancer is estimated to cause 80,980 new cases and 14,510 deaths in 2025. These figures combine kidney and renal pelvis cancers, while several RCC-specific figures below describe a narrower group.
Contents
- At a glance
- U.S. incidence and mortality
- Survival and stage at diagnosis
- Age and sex patterns
- Race and ethnicity incidence rates
- RCC subtypes and outcomes
- Worldwide burden and disease progression
At a glance
The following numbers provide a compact view of the burden and clinical pattern of kidney and renal pelvis cancer and RCC:
- The estimated U.S. totals for 2025 are 80,980 new kidney and renal pelvis cancer cases and 14,510 deaths. [NCI Renal Cell Cancer Treatment PDQ]
- Kidney and renal pelvis cancer ranked seventh among the top 10 cancers by estimated new cases and deaths for 2025. [SEER Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer Stat Facts]
- The overall U.S. 5-year relative survival is 78.6%. [SEER Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer Stat Facts]
- RCC represents 2%–3% of adult cancers and about 90% of adult renal malignancies. [Review of renal cell carcinoma and its common subtypes in radiology]
- About 431,000 RCC cases and 180,000 RCC deaths were recorded worldwide in 2020. [Epidemiology and Prevention of Renal Cell Carcinoma]
- In one U.S. RCC analysis, approximately 10% of newly diagnosed patients had metastatic disease, and another 10% of patients with localized disease later developed metastases. [Renal Cell Carcinoma]
These statistics use different populations, definitions, and time periods. A statistic for kidney and renal pelvis cancer should not be treated as interchangeable with a statistic for RCC alone.
U.S. incidence and mortality
The 2025 U.S. estimates from the NCI Renal Cell Cancer Treatment PDQ put the annual number of new kidney and renal pelvis cancer cases at 80,980. The same estimate projects 14,510 deaths. The figures are estimates for the United States in 2025, not a count of every RCC diagnosis.
SEER’s Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer Stat Facts table places kidney and renal pelvis cancer seventh among the 10 cancers listed for estimated 2025 new cases and deaths. SEER reports an age-adjusted incidence rate of 17.5 cases per 100,000 men and women per year.
Incidence differs by sex. The all-race male incidence rate is 23.8 per 100,000, compared with 12.0 per 100,000 for women. Another U.S. RCC analysis describes the incidence ratio as approximately 2:1 in men versus women. The two measures express the same broad pattern using different source populations and terminology.
The U.S. lifetime prevalence of RCC is reported as 2.3% for men and 1.3% for women. Prevalence is the proportion of people living with the disease at a point or over a period, so it is not the same measure as annual incidence or annual deaths.
Survival and stage at diagnosis
SEER reports a 5-year relative survival of 78.6% for kidney and renal pelvis cancer overall. Relative survival compares people with cancer with people in the general population and does not predict an individual patient’s outcome.
Survival varies substantially by the stage recorded at diagnosis:
| Stage at diagnosis | Share of diagnoses | 5-year relative survival |
|---|---|---|
| Localized | 66% | 93.3% |
| Regional | 16% | 76.4% |
| Distant | 15% | 19.1% |
| Unstaged | 3% | 54.3% |
Source: SEER Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer Stat Facts. The stage percentages describe the distribution of kidney and renal pelvis cancers at diagnosis, while the survival percentages describe outcomes for each SEER stage category.
The stage-specific figures show why an overall survival statistic can hide important differences. The localized category has the highest reported 5-year relative survival, at 93.3%. For regional disease, the figure is 76.4%. Distant disease has a 5-year relative survival of 19.1%, and the unstaged category has a figure of 54.3%.
RCC-specific staging figures from a separate source use different definitions. Stage III RCC accounts for 8% of diagnoses and has a reported 5-year cancer-specific survival of 63%–78%. Stage IV RCC accounts for 11% of diagnoses and has a reported 5-year cancer-specific survival of 27%–28%. These are cancer-specific survival estimates for RCC, not the SEER relative-survival figures in the table.
Age and sex patterns
The median age at diagnosis for kidney and renal pelvis cancer is 65 years, according to SEER’s Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer Stat Facts. A separate SEER-era analysis of RCC reports a median patient age of 64 years. The difference reflects the source population and disease definition rather than a reason to combine the values.
SEER reports the following distribution of new kidney and renal pelvis cancer cases by age:
- Below age 20: 0.9%
- Ages 20–34: 1.7%
- Ages 35–44: 5.9%
- Ages 45–54: 13.8%
- Ages 55–64: 25.9%
- Ages 65–74: 30.0%
- Ages 75–84: 16.8%
- Above age 84: 5.1%
The largest single age group is 65–74, at 30.0% of new cases. The next largest is ages 55–64, at 25.9%. Together, the reported 55–74 groups account for 55.9% of new cases. This sum is calculated from the supplied age-group percentages and describes the two adjacent groups only.
The distribution also shows that kidney and renal pelvis cancer can occur in younger people: 0.9% of new cases are below age 20, 1.7% occur at ages 20–34, and 5.9% occur at ages 35–44. The age pattern should not be used to estimate an individual’s risk.
Race and ethnicity incidence rates
SEER reports different age-adjusted incidence rates by race and ethnicity and sex. Among men, the reported rates are 39.2 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native men, 25.9 for non-Hispanic Black men, 24.6 for non-Hispanic White men, 24.6 for Hispanic men, and 12.1 for non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander men.
Among women, the reported rates are 20.2 per 100,000 for non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native women, 13.2 for non-Hispanic Black women, 14.4 for Hispanic women, 11.9 for non-Hispanic White women, and 5.7 for non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander women.
| Group | Incidence rate per 100,000 |
|---|---|
| Non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native men | 39.2 |
| Non-Hispanic Black men | 25.9 |
| Non-Hispanic White men | 24.6 |
| Hispanic men | 24.6 |
| Non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander men | 12.1 |
| Non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native women | 20.2 |
| Hispanic women | 14.4 |
| Non-Hispanic Black women | 13.2 |
| Non-Hispanic White women | 11.9 |
| Non-Hispanic Asian/Pacific Islander women | 5.7 |
Source: SEER Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer Stat Facts. These are incidence rates, not survival rates or percentages of all cancer cases.
RCC subtypes and outcomes
RCC is not one uniform tumor type. Clear cell RCC accounts for about 70% of RCC cases, papillary RCC accounts for 10%–15%, and chromophobe RCC accounts for about 5%, according to the Review of renal cell carcinoma and its common subtypes in radiology. A separate review reports that clear cell, papillary, and chromophobe RCC together account for more than 90% of RCC cases.
The same radiology review reports subtype-specific 5-year survival ranges of 44%–69% for clear cell RCC, 82%–92% for papillary RCC, and 78%–92% for chromophobe RCC. These ranges should not be compared directly with SEER’s overall 78.6% relative survival without accounting for differences in subtype, stage, follow-up, and survival definition.
The reported distribution of RCC metastases also differs by subtype. Clear cell RCC represents 94% of RCC metastases, papillary RCC represents 4%, and chromophobe RCC represents 2%. These percentages describe metastases in the cited review, not the percentage of each subtype that metastasizes.
A review of RCC reports that its incidence increased at a rate of 2% per year over the last 65 years. That historical trend is distinct from the 2025 U.S. estimate and the 2020 worldwide measurements.
Worldwide burden and disease progression
Worldwide, RCC had about 431,000 new cases in 2020 and about 180,000 deaths in 2020, according to Epidemiology and Prevention of Renal Cell Carcinoma. The 2020 world age-standardized incidence rate was 4.6 per 100,000 overall, 6.1 per 100,000 for men, and 3.1 per 100,000 for women.
The same source reports that the 2020 world age-standardized mortality rate corresponded to 1.8% of all cancer patient deaths. This is a share of cancer deaths, not a case-fatality percentage for RCC.
For disease presentation and progression, a Renal Cell Carcinoma review reports that approximately 10% of newly diagnosed RCC patients present with metastatic disease. It also reports that another 10% of patients with localized RCC later develop metastatic disease. These figures concern RCC and should not be added to one another as a single percentage of all patients.
The same source reports that more than 16% of RCC cases worldwide are associated with obesity. In that review, obesity in RCC is associated with a relative risk of 1.9 and an odds ratio of 0.61 for advanced-stage presentation compared with normal-weight patients. Relative risk and odds ratio are different measures, and the reported association does not establish that obesity causes an individual cancer outcome.