Trends in Renal-Cell Carcinoma Incidence and Mortality in the United States in the Last 2 Decades: A SEER-Based Study

Background: Renal-cell carcinoma (RCC) is one of the common malignancies in the United States. RCC incidence and mortality have been changing for many reasons. We performed a thorough investigation of incidence and mortality trends of RCC in the United States using the cell Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients and Methods: The 13 SEER registries were accessed for RCC cases diagnosed between 1992 and 2015. Incidence and mortality were calculated by demographic and tumor characteristics. We calculated annual percentage changes of these rates. Rates were expressed as 100,000 person-years. Results: A total of 104,584 RCC cases were reviewed, with 47,561 deaths. The overall incidence was 11.281 per 100,000 person-years. Incidence increased by 2.421% per year (95% confidence interval, 2.096, 2.747; P <.001) but later became stable since 2008. However, the incidence of clear-cell subtype continued to increase (1.449%; 95% confidence interval, 0.216, 2.697; P =.024). RCC overall mortality rates have been declining since 2001. However, mortality associated with distant RCC only started to decrease in 2012, with an annual percentage change of 18.270% (95% confidence interval, −28.775, −6.215; P =.006). Conclusion: Despite an overall increase in the incidence of RCC, there has been a recent plateau in RCC incidence rates with a significant decrease in mortality.