Prognostic factors in renal cell carcinoma

Renal cancer has been increasingly diagnosed in recent decades. In addition, morphological diversity of renal neoplasms has led to consider that the concept of renal cell (RC) carcinoma encompasses a wide variety of conditions. The recently published EROCARE-4 study showed a 5-year overall survival rate of 59.2%. In this and any other neoplastic disease, determination of adequate prognostic factors would help decide the most appropriate therapeutic strategy in each case, guide future treatments, and develop specific follow-up schemes for our patients. The different prognostic factors for RC may currently be classified into four groups: anatomical, clinical, histological and molecular. This paper analyzes these prognostic factors and reviews the nomograms most commonly used.