There are several factors that are taken into consideration when medical researchers calculate the kidney cancer survival rate. These factors, of course, include characteristics of the cancer itself. But factors involving the individual patient are important too.

In gathering their survival rate statistics, researchers take the type of cancer, stage, grade and location into consideration. Factors that relate to the individual patient include age, overall health, and the patient's capability to respond to any treatment that's required.

Using data reflecting these factors in recent decades, medical researchers have been able to generate some statistics for kidney cancer survival rates. The data below takes only one type of cancer into consideration, but it's by far the most common type. It is known as renal cell carcinoma.

Typically, the kidney cancer survival rate is shown in percentages. In other words, a certain percentage of patients who have the same type of cancer at roughly the same stage will still be alive after a defined period of time.

It should be noted, of course, that every case is different and there's no way to accurately predict how long someone with kidney cancer will live after treatment. The survival rate is a broad-based number based on thousands of cases.

In the case of cancer of the kidney and most other diseases, the survival rate is measured in intervals of 5 years. In other words, a percentage of those who have been diagnosed with kidney cancer will live for at least five years.

The kidney cancer survival rate is typically calculated and shown in a number of ways.. The data below reflects a comparison of those who have been diagnosed with kidney cancer to the general population. The statistics come from a study done between 1995 and 2001.

During this period, the comprehensive kidney cancer survival rate was approximately 65 percent.

The data was also broken into categories that specified race and gender.

• 64.7 percent of Caucasian men were still alive after five years

• The percentage of Caucasian women who lived at least five years was similar: 64.5

• The percentage for African American men was somewhat lower at 61.8 percent

• African American women enjoyed the highest survival rate of all at 65.9 percent

The survival rate also depends on the stage the cancer has reached by the time it's diagnosed. A higher stage assignment means the cancer has spread more and will therefore be more difficult to treat.

Approximately 50 percent of those with kidney cancer are diagnosed before the disease has spread beyond the kidneys (this process is called metastasis).

One case of every five that is diagnosed (20 percent) is discovered after cancer cells have reached the lymph nodes or other areas close to the kidneys.

22 percent of the time, cancer cells have spread far beyond the primary site (a kidneys or the kidneys) and are now located in other parts of the body.

Stage classifications were unknown for the remaining percentage of cases.

As you would expect, patients who were diagnosed in an early stage were more likely to survive for the longest period of time.

• 9 out of 10 patients who were diagnosed when cancer was confined to the kidneys survived at least five years.

• The numbers were less encouraging when cancer had spread to the immediate region around the kidneys, with only 60 percent reaching the five year survival mark.

• Only about one patient in ten reached the five year survival mark when cancer cells had reached distant parts of the body.

• For the remaining patients in the study, stage information was unclear or unknown.

The United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Northern Europe have the highest incidence of kidney cancer, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute. Kidney cancer occurs least often in China, Thailand and the Philippines. Kidney cancer accounts for approximately three percent of all cancers diagnosed in the U.S.

Smoking puts an individual at higher risk for kidney cancer. Two smokers develop renal cell carcinoma for each non-smoker. The ratio is even higher for renal pelvis cancer at four to one.