Abstract
The management of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is evolving owing to the increasing detection of small renal masses, greater understanding of the metabolic pathways involved, new targeted medical treatments for metastatic RCC, and evolving surgical and minimally invasive image-guided treatment techniques. Consequently, the role of imaging and radiology has expanded, with new challenges encompassing all aspects of management, including diagnosis, predicting cell type, staging, preoperative vascular mapping, image-guided treatment and biopsy, detection of recurrence and the use of imaging as a biomarker to assess response to treatment. This article is a comprehensive review of RCC, outlining the etiology of the disease, RCC histological subtypes and their imaging characteristics, imaging modality techniques for evaluation of RCC, treatment strategies and the management of small renal masses.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.