Kidney Neoplasia

The incidence of kidney cancer is rising. Due to the widespread use of abdominal imaging for unrelated indications, small renal masses have been increasingly detected incidentally. A better understanding of the biology underlying the different tumor types arising from the kidney cortex has opened new avenues to define diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment strategies. Complete surgical resection remains the standard approach to treat renal neoplasms, and no systemic treatments have proven to be effective after a curative intent surgery. Approximately 30 to 40% of patients with kidney cancer will experience recurrence after a definitive treatment and will ultimately succumb to their disease. Drugs targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor and mammalian target of rapamycin pathways have significantly changed the outcome of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Recently, the new era of immunotherapy has brought a new breath to the treatment of mRCC and will integrate into the landscape of treatment, improving clinical outcome.   This review contains 3 figures, 7 tables and 129 references Key words: benign kidney tumors, cystic renal mass, kidney cancer, kidney neoplasms, metastatic renal cell carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, small renal masses