Over the past 10 years, the scientific activities of Umberto Capitanio were dedicated to the field of kidney cancer, in particular in the settings of Small Renal Masses (SMR), locally advanced and metastatic kidney cancer, becoming an acknowledged international opinion leader in the field. He has leadership roles in important international research consortia in the field of staging and prognosis of renal cell carcinoma, the role of lymph node dissection and lymph node invasion in patients with kidney cancer, the impact of minimally invasive surgery in the field of kidney cancer, the optimization of the functional outcomes of patients with kidney cancer, the multidisciplinary approach to the patient with renal cancer and the analyses of treatment outcomes of renal cancer patients. He works as the Principal Investigator in several translational studies – which received dedicated grants – to test and develop novel integrated diagnostic approaches to patients with renal masses.