Increasing incidence of renal cell carcinoma in the young population

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) also called as kidney cancer is a malignancy which arises from renal tubular cells.It is most commonly diagnosed in the elderly(>50years), but now a days there is an increasing number in younger population. There is an increasing incidence in the last decade by more than 2% compared to the previous incidence.

Though this number is alarming, there is so much to consider which can help in decreasing the severity by early diagnosis. Though there is increased incidence, the mortality rate from RCC has decreased significantly. Any disease when diagnosed early, most of the times it can be curable. The incidence of RCC is more in male population compared to females (2.3: 1.0) due to multiple factors. The most common causes which is leading to increased incidence of RCC is because of increased smoking, poor lifestyle habits leading to obesity and hypertension, end stage renal disease which are the most acquired risk factors.In addition to the above, there are genetic or heredity factors for the risk of RCC which run in families.

The increased use of imaging like USG, CT scans, awareness of annual health check-ups has led to the increased diagnosis of RCC in the early stages when patients are asymptomatic and also at curative stages. Most patients with well advanced disease present with flank pain, haematuria and palpable abdominal mass and other general symptoms.

So, in patients with above symptoms and diagnosis of renal mass the clinician will need to do further investigations to stage the disease and advice the best possible treatment. Most of the times, removal of involved kidneys is the best treatment but as said with the advancement and innovations in medical practice, we are now in a stage to preserve the involved kidney by removing only the tumour and preserving the kidney(kidney sparing surgery). The histopathology report usually guides in the necessity of further management to prevent the recurrences. Though, surgery is the best possible treatment there are other treatment approaches like ablation, targeted therapy, biological drugs in suitable patients which are minimally invasive.