Why and how to grade renal carcinomas

: The prognosis of renal cell carcinomas has been a controversial subject for pathologists for a long time. At the present time, in addition to stage, the nuclear grade defined by Fuhrman represents an essential element in the prognostic assessment. A renal cell carcinoma can be easily characterized by its stage and its grade, defining a precise prognosis. Specific entities such as tubulopapillary tumors, oncocytomas and chromophobe cell carcinomas must also be graded until the results of complementary studies become available allowing a better assessment of their autonomy among renal cell carcinomas.