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Staging

Staging is a process that determines how widespread the cancer may be. The stage tells the doctor if the cancer has spread and if so, how far it has spread. Staging systems change over time. The staging system below is a simplified version of the current staging system used by the Children's Oncology Group, for renal cell carcinoma.

• Stage I: Tumor is inside the kidney and 7 cm (2.75 inches) or smaller in the greatest dimension.
• Stage II: Tumor is inside the kidney and larger than 7 cm (2.75 inches)
• Stage III: Tumor has spread locally beyond the kidney or has spread to only one lymph node. This spread can be into a blood vessel, the adrenal gland on top of the kidney, or the tissues close to the kidney.
• Stage IV: Tumor has spread to an area not close to the kidney (outside Gerota's fascia), into more than one lymph node, or has spread to an area away from the kidney.
• Stage V: Tumor is in both kidneys

33 % of the children have stage I disease, 11% stage II, 27% stage III, and 30% stage IV disease.

The technical terms used for the staging of renal cell carcinoma are different than for most other pediatric kidney tumors. The staging system was designed by the American Joint Commission on Cancer (AJCC) and uses tumor characteristics (T-tumor), lymph node involvement (N-node) and whether the tumor has spread to another region of the body (M-metastasis) to assign a TNM stage.

TMN staging of renal cell carcinoma.