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.