Most of these small renal masses manifest indolent biological behavior with excellent prognosis.

Patients present with a renal mass with the most common sites of metastases being the lung, liver, and bones.

Most patients present with recurrent fevers and urosepsis, anemia, and a painful renal mass.

"A renal mass was detected, as was a liver mass as were multiple nodules in the base of my lungs," Dr. Casarella said.

Intravenous pyelogram (IVP) is a useful procedure in detecting the presence of abnormal renal mass in the urinary tract.

Active surveillance or "Watchful waiting" is becoming more common as small renal masses or tumours are being detected and also within the older generation surgery is not always suitable.

Deciding on the benign or malignant nature of the renal mass on the basis of its localised size is an issue as renal cell carcinoma may also be cystic.

Palese MA, Ferrer F, Perlman E and Gearhart JP: Metanephric stromal tumor: A rare benign pediatric renal mass.

The major clinical indications for this investigation are the detection and/or evaluation of a renal scar, the small or absent kidney, an occult duplex system, certain renal masses, systemic hypertension or suspected vasculitis.

Except when computed tomography (CT) examination is equivocal or when iodinated contrast material is contraindicated, CT scanning is as good as or better than magnetic resonance imaging for detecting renal masses.

The prevalence of various radiological imaging procedures such as intravenous pyelography (IVP), ultrasonography, or computed tomography (CT) scanning have revolutionised the way abnormal renal masses are detected for early stage renal cancer in patients who are asymptomatic.

Traditonally 85 to 90%% of solid renal masses will turn out to be RCC but this number may be decreasing as renal masses are being found at smaller and smaller sizes with larger numbers of benign lesions.

Among these main diagnostic tests, other radiologic tests such as excretory urography, positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning, ultrasonography, arteriography, venography, and bone scanning can also used to aid in the evaluation of staging renal masses and to differentiate non-malignant tumours from malignant tumours.