Kidney cancer in men's health: from sex disparity to sexual and endocrine survivorship

Kidney cancer, particularly renal cell carcinoma (RCC), is a male-predominant malignancy whose clinical meaning extends beyond oncological control. Men carry a substantially higher global burden of kidney cancer than women, and this disparity probably reflects a combination of modifiable exposures, occupational risks, cardiometabolic vulnerability, health-seeking behavior, sex-hormone biology, immune regulation, and tumor microenvironmental differences. This narrative review and clinical perspective adds an operational men’s health framework that separates RCC-specific evidence from broader survivorship extrapolation and links prevention, treatment choice, renal preservation, sexual and endocrine survivorship, fatigue, fertility, and psychosocial recovery. Population-wide screening of asymptomatic men is not evidence-based; prevention should instead emphasize smoking cessation, weight control, blood pressure management for renal and cardiovascular protection, physical activity, occupational risk reduction, and targeted evaluation of high-risk individuals. For localized RCC, nephron-sparing treatment can preserve renal function in appropriately selected patients, whereas systemic therapy for advanced disease requires proactive assessment of fatigue, endocrine immune-related adverse events and psychosexual morbidity. The review proposes a practical multidisciplinary pathway for integrating uro-oncology with andrology, sexual medicine, endocrinology, nephrology, cardiovascular prevention, rehabilitation, and psychosocial care.

Kidney cancer; Renal cell carcinoma; Men’s health; Sexual function; Hypogonadism; Survivorship; Nephrectomy; Androgen receptor; Quality of life; Prevention

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