NewsAwareness
Kidney Cancer Awareness Month: Knowing the Risk Factors That Can Be Changed
Every March, Kidney Cancer Awareness Month highlights a common cancer. Here is a calm, NCI-based look at what it is and which risk factors you can influence.
A plain-language summary based on public reporting and trusted sources, linked below.
Please note: this page is educational only — it is not medical advice, and it does not speculate about anyone’s health beyond reliable public reporting. For questions about your own health, talk with your healthcare team.
March, and the color orange
Kidney Cancer Awareness Month runs through March. The Kidney Cancer Association asks people to "#OrangeUp," orange being the national awareness color for this disease, and says more than 600,000 people in the United States are living with kidney cancer.
An awareness month for a cancer with no screening test has to do something other than send people for a test. What it can do is name the risk factors, and name the one symptom that reliably gets kidney cancer found.
What the disease is
The kidneys sit on either side of the spine, above the waist, and filter waste out of the blood to make urine.
Renal cell cancer is the common adult kidney cancer. NCI says it forms in the tubules, the tiny tubes inside the kidney that do the filtering. About 85% of these tumors are adenocarcinomas, mostly arising in the part of the tubule nearest the filter.
That is not the only cancer in the area. Transitional cell cancer starts in the renal pelvis, the funnel that collects urine, and NCI treats it as a different disease with a different summary. Wilms tumor is the childhood kidney cancer. Our page on kidney cancer types sorts them out.
One detail from NCI's health-professional summary is worth carrying: size alone should not drive the treatment approach, because spread has been seen from tumors as small as 0.5 cm.
The risk factors, and which ones move
NCI lists these for renal cell cancer:
- Smoking tobacco
- Misusing certain pain medicines, including over-the-counter ones, over a long period
- Carrying excess body weight
- High blood pressure
- A family history of renal cell cancer
- Certain inherited conditions, including von Hippel-Lindau disease and hereditary papillary renal cancer
The first four can change. That is unusual enough among cancers to be the point of the month. NCI describes tobacco as a leading cause of cancer and of cancer death; our page on quitting smoking covers what actually helps.
NCI adds the standard caution, and it is not filler. Many people with several of these never develop kidney cancer, and some people with none of them do.
Why there is no screening test
NCI has no PDQ evidence-based information on screening for kidney cancer, and none on preventing it. There is no routine test for people at average risk, and this page will not invent one.
What happens instead is that many kidney cancers are found by accident, on a scan ordered for something else. That is part of why two thirds are still confined to the kidney when found.
What treatment involves
Surgery is the mainstay. NCI's health-professional summary says so directly, and adds that systemic drug therapy has shown only limited effectiveness for this disease.
For stage I, meaning a tumor 7 cm or smaller and still inside the kidney, NCI lists partial nephrectomy for selected people, radical nephrectomy, and simple nephrectomy. Partial nephrectomy removes the tumor and leaves the rest of the kidney. In appropriately selected people, NCI says its cancer outcomes match radical surgery while preserving more kidney function, and some studies show lower mortality.
Radical nephrectomy takes the kidney, the adrenal gland, the surrounding fat, and the fibrous envelope called Gerota's fascia, sometimes with nearby lymph nodes. NCI says it is preferred if the tumor has grown into the inferior vena cava, the large vein returning blood to the heart.
For people who cannot have surgery, NCI lists cryoablation (freezing), thermal ablation (heating), and stereotactic ablative radiation as options that can still be curative. External beam radiation and arterial embolization are listed for symptom relief. Our page on kidney cancer stages explains how the extent is described.
The numbers
An American Cancer Society projection, published on SEER, puts 2026 at 80,450 new US kidney and renal pelvis cancer diagnoses and 15,160 deaths. Five-year relative survival across all stages, for cases diagnosed in 2016 through 2022, is 79.2%.
By stage: localized 93.6%, regional 77.6%, distant 20.3%. About 66% are found while still localized, which is a high proportion and the main reason the overall figure is as good as it is.
NCI adds a note that fits nowhere else: renal cell cancer is one of the few cancers with documented cases of tumors shrinking with no treatment at all. It happens rarely, and NCI is clear it does not necessarily lead to long-term survival.
These are group figures from past years. They do not describe any one person.
When to get checked
Early kidney cancer usually causes nothing. NCI lists these as reasons to check with a doctor:
- Blood in the urine
- A lump in the abdomen
- Pain in the side that does not go away
- Loss of appetite
- Weight loss for no known reason
- Anemia
Blood in the urine is the one to act on without delay, even once, even if it clears the next day, and even if it is only visible on a dipstick test. Most causes are not cancer — infection and stones are far more common — but it needs a cause found rather than a wait.
What this does not mean
- An awareness month is not a screening program. NCI does not recommend any routine test for kidney cancer.
- Having risk factors is not a diagnosis, and having none is not protection.
- A small tumor is not automatically a safe tumor. NCI notes spread from lesions as small as 0.5 cm.
- The 79.2% figure is an all-stages average from past years. It is not a forecast for anyone.
Sources
- Kidney Cancer Association, Kidney Cancer Awareness Month — https://www.kidneycancer.org/event/kidney-cancer-awareness-month/
- NCI PDQ, Renal Cell Cancer Treatment (Patient Version) — https://www.cancer.gov/types/kidney/patient/kidney-treatment-pdq
- NCI PDQ, Renal Cell Cancer Treatment (Health Professional Version) — https://www.cancer.gov/types/kidney/hp/kidney-treatment-pdq
- SEER Cancer Stat Facts, Kidney and Renal Pelvis Cancer — https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/kidrp.html
How this article was prepared
An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.
The National Cancer Information Foundation publishes Cancer Explained. This page is for learning. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.
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Put the story in context
Prevention, possible warning signs, screening, and diagnosis
This story relates to Kidney (renal cell) cancer. The information below is general: it does not reveal anything else about a public person’s health, and not every point applies to every cancer. Personal advice depends on age, symptoms, family history, exposures, and medical history.
Prevention and risk reduction
Not every cancer can be prevented. Avoiding tobacco, protecting skin from ultraviolet radiation, limiting alcohol, staying active, and receiving recommended HPV or hepatitis B vaccination can lower the risk of certain cancers. A risk factor is not a prediction or a cause in one individual.
Symptoms and possible early signs
Possible signs vary and are often caused by conditions other than cancer. Changes worth discussing include a new lump, unexplained bleeding or weight loss, a persistent cough, lasting bowel or bladder changes, a changing skin spot, or symptoms that persist or worsen. Some early cancers cause no symptoms.
Screening and early detection
Screening looks for certain cancers before symptoms begin. Recommended tests exist only for some cancers and depend on age and risk. Screening can have benefits and harms; it is not the same as evaluating a new symptom, and there is no single routine scan or blood test that reliably screens for every cancer.
How cancer is diagnosed
Diagnosis may involve a history and exam, imaging, laboratory tests, and often a biopsy. Pathology can identify the cancer type and may test biomarkers that guide treatment. Symptoms, screening results, tumor markers, or online stories alone cannot confirm cancer.
Learn about this story’s cancer topic
A public story may encourage questions, but it should not be used to estimate your risk or choose testing. Contact a healthcare professional about a persistent or concerning change. Seek urgent care for severe or rapidly worsening symptoms.