The role of surgery in the management of early-stage renal cancer.

There were an estimated 58,240 new cases and 13,040 deaths from kidney cancer in the United States in 2010. The increased treatment and cure of small, incidentally discovered renal tumors, most of which are nonlethal in nature, has not offset the increased mortality caused by advanced and metastatic tumors. In this article, the optimum approach to the surgical management of localized renal tumors and its impact on renal function are discussed.