# MSKCC (Motzer) risk groups for advanced kidney cancer

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/mskcc-motzer-rcc/  
OnCo record `mskcc-motzer-rcc` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The MSKCC (Motzer) model sorts advanced kidney cancer into favourable, intermediate and poor risk by counting five factors; the IMDC model later replaced it, but trials and labels still use it.

## Summary

From 670 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma in 24 Memorial Sloan-Kettering trials between 1975 and 1996, Motzer and colleagues (Journal of Clinical Oncology 1999) identified five factors linked to shorter survival: Karnofsky performance status below 80%, LDH above 1.5 times the upper limit of normal, haemoglobin below the lower limit of normal, corrected calcium above 10 mg/dl, and no prior nephrectomy. Patients with none were favourable risk (25% of patients, median survival 20 months in that era), one or two intermediate (53%, 10 months), and three or more poor (22%, 4 months). Survival with current immunotherapy combinations is far longer than in this pre-targeted-therapy cohort.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: MSKCC risk; MSKCC criteria; Motzer criteria; Motzer score; MSKCC favourable risk; MSKCC poor risk

## Sources

- Motzer et al., Survival and prognostic stratification of 670 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (J Clin Oncol 1999): https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.1999.17.8.2530

## Connected records

- terms: [Disease-specific staging and risk systems (FIGO, Ann Arbor, IPI, R-ISS, ELN, IMDC)](https://onco.cc/terms/staging-systems/), [IMDC risk groups (favourable / intermediate / poor)](https://onco.cc/terms/imdc-risk/), [Leibovich score (kidney cancer recurrence risk after surgery)](https://onco.cc/terms/leibovich-score/)
- cancers: [Clear cell renal cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/clear-cell-rcc/), [Renal cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/rcc/)

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