Kidney Cancer

The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist. They lie in your lower abdomen on each side of your spine. Their main job is to clean your blood, removing waste products and making urine.

Kidney cancers, also called renal cancer is a disease in which kidney cells become malignant (cancerous) and grows out of control, forming a tumor. Almost all kidney cancers first appear in the lining of tiny tubes (tubules) in the kidney. This type of kidney cancer is called renal cell carcinoma. The good news is that most of these cancers are found before they spread (metastasize) to distant organs. And cancers caught early are easier to treat successfully. However, these tumors can grow to be quite large before they are detected.

Causes of Kidney Cancer

• Smoking: If you smoke cigarettes, your risk for kidney cancer is twice that of nonsmokers. Smoking cigars may also increase your risk.
• Being Male: Men are about twice as likely as women to get kidney cancer.
• Obesity: Extra weight may cause changes to hormones that increase your risk.
• Having advanced kidney disease or being on long-term dialysis, a treatment for people with kidneys that have stopped working.
• Having certain genetic conditions, such as von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease or inherited papillary renal cell carcinoma.
• Being exposed to certain chemicals, such as asbestos, cadmium, benzene, organic solvents, or certain herbicides
• Having high blood pressure: Doctors don’t know whether high blood pressure or medication used to treat it is the source of the increased risk.

Signs and symptoms of Kidney Cancer

• Blood in your urine
• A lump in your side or abdomen
• A loss of appetite
• A pain in your side that does not go away
• Weight loss that occurs for no known reason
• Fever that lasts for weeks and isn’t caused by a cold or other infection
• Extreme fatigue
• Anemia
• Swelling in your ankles or legs

Stages of Kidney Cancers

• Stage I: A tumor 7 centimeters or smaller that is only in the kidney.
• Stage II: A tumor larger than 7 centimeters that is only in the kidney.
• Stage III: A tumor that is in the kidney and in one nearby lymph node.
• Stage IV: Cancer has spread beyond the fatty layer of tissue around the kidney, and it may also be in one nearby lymph node

Treatments for Kidney Cancer

• Open Nephrectomy: Open partial nephrectomy is defined as a removal of a portion of the kidney to achieve total removal of the entire tumor.
• Radical Nephrectomy: Kidney cancer may be treated with radical nephrectomy, in which the entire kidney, along with the adrenal gland and some tissue around the kidney, is surgically removed.
• Simple Nephrectomy: Some patients with early kidney cancer may have a simple nephrectomy which involves removing only the kidney.
• Partial Nephrectomy: : A surgeon removes the section of the kidney with the tumor. This procedure may be used when the patient has only one kidney or the cancer affects both kidneys, and only in patients with small kidney tumors.