BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS Rising Incidence of Small Renal Masses: A Need to Reassess Treatment Effect

The incidence of kidney cancer has been rising over the last two decades, especially in cases where the disease is localized. Although rates of renal sur-gery parallel this trend, mortality rates have continued to rise. To investigate the basis of this “ treatment discon-nect ” (i.e., increased rates of treatment accompanied by increased mortality rates), we analyzed patient data from nine registries of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program. We assem-bled a cohort of 34 503 kidney cancer patients and derived incidence, treat