The most important factor affecting the prognosis of kidney cancer is the pathological stage. In addition, factors such as histological grading, patients’ behavioral status score, symptoms, whether there is tissue necrosis in the tumor, abnormalities and changes of some biochemical indicators are also related to the prognosis of kidney cancer. It was previously believed that the prognosis of renal cancer was related to histological type, and the prognosis of renal papillary adenocarcinoma and suspicious cell carcinoma was better than that of clear cell carcinoma; the prognosis of renal papillary adenocarcinoma type I was better than that of type II; the prognosis of collecting duct carcinoma was worse than that of clear cell carcinoma. However, some studies showed that histologic subtypes were not independent prognostic factors compared with TNM stage, cancer cell grading and physical status score, and there was no significant difference in prognosis among subtypes with the same stage and grading of tumors. However, the response rate of mRCC to cytokine therapy varied among different histological types, with about 10%-20% in patients with clear cell carcinoma type and poor cytokine therapy in renal papillary carcinoma and suspicious cell carcinoma.