Kidney cancer is also called a Grawitz tumor or adrenal tumor. It is a malignant tumor that is difficult to detect. Therefore, whenever you see traces of blood in your urine, your kidney area hurts, you have a temperature, press the doctor to refer you to tests that exclude kidney cancer. If you miss the first signals - it may be too late for treatment.

The origin of kidney cancer is not fully known. However, studies have shown that kidney cancer is promoted by smoking, cadmium exposure , obesity associated with hypertension, and estrogen therapy.
There are five types of kidney cancer: clear cell carcinoma (65-75 percent of cases), papillary cancer, also called chromophilic cancer (10-15 percent of cases), chromophobic cancer (5 percent of cases), collecting tubular cancer and sarcomatoid cancer. Kidney cancer accounts for 3.6 percent of all malignancies in men and 2.6 percent in women. Kidney cancer is twice as common in males - in men who are approaching the age of 60.

Kidney cancer - how it manifests itself

After introducing ultrasound into the routine nephrological diagnosis, approximately 60 percent of kidney tumors are diagnosed accidentally. This is just proof that there are no specific, pre-existing symptoms in kidney cancer patients. The appearance of clinical symptoms proves that the development of kidney cancer is advanced.

Symptoms that should worry you are:

  • hematuria
  • pains
  • presence of a tumor in the area of ​​the kidneys
  • fever
  • anemia of unknown cause
  • significant depletion of red blood cells (characterized by a three-digit ESR)

It also happens that the first symptoms of kidney cancer are already caused by metastases to the lungs, bones, liver and brain.

Kidney cancer - diagnosis

In the initial stage, the diagnosis of kidney cancer is extremely difficult. Only finding a tumor in the kidney and associating it with pains in the area of ​​the changed kidney can help the doctor correctly diagnose the disease. To be sure of the diagnosis, your doctor will order a CT or MRI scan, which will accurately determine the anatomy of the kidney tumor, especially the one suspected of being malignant. In each case of a kidney tumor suspected of being malignant, a photo is takenx-rays of the lungs and bones, sonography of the liver and CT scans of the skull to show any metastases.

Kidney cancer - treatment

The treatment of kidney cancer consists in radical nephrectomy, i.e. removal of the kidney together with the fatty capsule (adrenal gland). If the patient has only one kidney and the tumor is less than 4 centimeters in size, it is possible to remove only the mass of the tumor, leaving the kidney. Traditional chemotherapy is usually ineffective.

People who smoke, work in electroplating processes, in agriculture with pesticides and other fertilizers, non-ferrous metal smelters, workers in the dyes and plastics industry are particularly at risk of exposure to cadmium.

Important

Prognosis - 60 percent of patients with the disease survive 5 years. If metastasis is found, this number drops to 20 percent.

Category:

Oncology