Cancer news
Kidney Cancer
What is kidney cancer?
Normally, in an adult kidney cells divide rapidly, to replace those lost to old age and injury, the division and growth of these cells is under tight control by the genes inside the cells. Kidney cancer starts when control of this division is lost, and so a cell starts to divide “out of control”. Cancer may develop in one or both kidneys. In the early stages, kidney cancer usually causes no obvious signs or symptoms. As kidney cancer grows, it may invade organs near the kidney such as the liver, colon or pancreas. Kidney cancer cells may also break away from the original tumor and spread (or metastasize) to other parts of the body such as the lymph nodes, bones or lungs, with about one third of cases showing metastasis at the time of diagnosis.
What are the Symptoms?
The symptoms will appear as the disease progresses. If you notice:
- Blood in the urine;
- A lump or mass in the kidney area;
- Fatigue; Loss of appetite;
- Weight loss;
- Recurrent fevers;
- A pain in the side that doesn’t go away; and
- High blood pressure.
make sure you contact your doctor as soon as possible. You can prevent kidney cancer by reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke daily until you get to 0. Cause smoking doubles the risk of kidney cancer. Other than smoking, the only substantial risk factors for the development of kidney cancer are related to family pedigree, but in this case nobody can change family history.
How Is Kidney Cancer Diagnosed?
Computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, intravenous pyelograms, ultrasonography are just a few examples from what a full analyze contains. They will always do some chest x-rays and bone scans to determine if the cancer has spread.
Computed tomography (CT or CAT) scan is an x-ray procedure that produces detailed cross-sectional images of your body. Instead of taking one picture, as does a conventional x-ray, a CT scanner takes many pictures as it rotates around you while you lie on a table.
Ultrasonography (ultrasound or US) uses sound waves to produce images of internal organs. A wand called a transducer is passed over the skin, where it emits sound waves and detects the echoes bouncing back off internal organs.
Bone scan involves injecting small amounts of a special radioactive material through a vein into your bloodstream. The material then travels to the bones. It collects in areas where there is a lot of bone activity, so the test can identify both cancerous and noncancerous diseases.
Staging of Kidney Cancer
Staging is the process of finding out how far the cancer has spread. There are four types of cancer.
Stage I - The cancer has not spread and is only in the kidney.
Stage II- The cancer has spread to the fatty tissue around the kidney, but not to the capsule around the kidney.
Stage III - The cancer has spread to blood vessels or lymph nodes around the kidney.
Stage IV - The cancer has spread to nearby organs (like the bowel or pancreas) or to other places (like the lungs).
What are the Treatment options?
Your treatment options depend on the stage of the disease. Some of the most common treatment options are: surgery, radiation therapy, biological therapy, chemotherapy, or hormone therapy.
Surgery is the main treatment for kidney cancer. The chances of surviving a renal cell cancer without having surgery are poor.
Radiation therapy makes the use of high energy x-rays to kill cancer cells. Normal cells in our body can repair radiation damage much quicker than tumor cells, so while tumor cells are killed by radiation, many normal cells are not. This is the basis for the use of radiation therapy in cancer treatment.
Chemotherapy is defined as drugs that are used to kill tumor cells. Up to this point, there is no chemotherapy regimen that has been consistently shown to be efficacious in the treatment of curative or metastatic kidney cancer.
Kidney cancer sites
- MedlinePlus: Kidney Cancer - Links format topics provided by the US National Library of Medicine.
- Kidney Cancer - Urologychannel - Several types of cancer can afflict the kidneys. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common form, accounts for approximately 85% of all kidney cancers.
- YOU CAN TAKE ACTION TO CURE KIDNEY CANCER: JOIN THE KCA TODAY! - Comprehensive information about kidney cancer for physicians and patients.
- CancerGuide: Welcome To Steve Dunn’s Kidney Cancer Page - Comprehensive information from a survivor especially oriented to treatment options, with links to discussion groups.
- THE KIDNEY CANCER ASSOCIATION - Comprehensive information about kidney cancer for physicians and patients.
