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Renal cancer refers to several different and specific types of cancer that can affect the kidneys, not constituting a uniform or singular condition. Among all carcinomas in this category, renal cell carcinomas (RCC) account for 80 to 85% of all primary kidney tumors, with clear cell RCC being the most frequent among them. Additionally, it is known that RCC can cause chronic kidney disease (CKD) as well as CKD may lead to risk of RCC between 3 and 7 times higher than the general population. Furthermore, it is important to emphasize that among all urological neoplasms, renal cancer has the highest fatality rate, with 40% of patients succumbing to the disease's progression. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the behavior of mortality rates associated with this group of neoplasms, highly related to CKD, in Brazil and its regions.
This is a cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, with data from Cancer Mortality Atlas, from National Cancer Institute (INCA), auxiliary agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, from the years 2011 to 2021. The analyzed data included proportional, unadjusted mortality rates for kidney cancer, as well as crude and age-adjusted mortality rates for kidney cancer, per 100,000 individuals, categorized by gender and age group. These rates were observed both nationally and regionally in Brazil.
Conclusions
This study points to a decrease in the number of deaths due to renal cancer between the years 2011 and 2021. This reduction is mainly influenced by the behavior of proportional and unadjusted mortality during the years 2020 and 2021, where the average annual variation of this indicator was -16.87%, unlike the years prior to 2020, where the average annual variation of this indicator was approximately +3.5%. One of the reasons that could justify this sudden and significant drop in this indicator could be the increase in deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, this study highlights the north region with the highest annual variations and points to males and elderly population to the highest mortality risk from renal cancer.