Shanghai hospital leads in kidney cancer survival rates

The five-year survival rate for patients with kidney cancer at a leading hospital in Shanghai is in line with top medical facilities in the West, experts announced at the Pujiang Kidney Tumor Forum over the weekend.

Experts from the Shanghai Cancer Center said 77.1 percent of its kidney cancer patients can survive for more than five years, a term meaning clinical recovery. The figure at the Cleveland Medical Center in the US is 74 percent.

Kidney cancer is a common urological tumor. There are more than 74,000 new cases in China annually, and both the incidence and mortality in China are higher than the world's average level.

"Kidney cancer is a silent tumor, as most patients don't have symptoms in the early stages and aren't diagnosed until in the terminal stage," said Dr Ye Dingwei, director of the Shanghai Cancer Center's urological surgery department.

"With the promotion of health check-ups, the detection of kidney cancer in the early stages has been improved. But about 20 to 30 percent of Chinese patients are still found in the late stage. Precise evaluation, precise surgery and individualized multidisciplinary treatment are key for patients' survival and life quality."

Regular screening, early diagnosis and proper treatment are key cancer prevention and control. There is still gap between China and leading countries like the US on cancer survival, experts said.

According to the latest cancer research and survivor statistics released by the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute of the US, the five-year survival for US cancer patients is nearly 70 percent.

The figure in China is only 40.5 percent, which has grown from 30.9 percent in the past decade.