In recent years, the incidence of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) has increased dramatically (54% from 1975 to 1990), and in 1996, approx 30,000 new cases were diagnosed in the United States (1 ). In the same year, an estimated 12,000 RCC-related deaths occurred in the United States. The increased incidence of RCC in recent years may be linked to certain risk factors such as smoking, obesity, high-protein diets, and hypertension (2 ).
