Kidney Cancer

Kidney Cancer

It is important to realize that with timely diagnosis and treatment, kidney cancer can be cured. If found early, the survival rate for patients with kidney cancer ranges from 79 to 100 percent. More than 100,000 survivors of kidney cancer are alive in the United States today.

Many kidney tumors do not produce symptoms, but may be detected incidentally during the evaluation of an unrelated problem or during routine screening for people who are in high-risk categories (e.g. Von Hippel Lindau disease, tuberous sclerosis). Compression, stretching and invasion of structures near the kidney may cause pain (in the flank, abdomen or back), palpable mass, and blood in the urine (microscopic or grossly visible). If cancer spreads (metastasizes) beyond the kidney, symptoms depend upon the involved organ. Shortness of breath or coughing up blood may occur when cancer is in the lung, bone pain or fracture may occur when cancer is in the bone and neurologic symptoms may occur when cancer is in the brain. In some cases, the cancer causes associated clinical or laboratory abnormalities called paraneoplastic syndromes. These syndromes are observed in approximately 20 percent of patients with kidney cancer and can occur in any stage (including cancers confined to the kidney). Symptoms from paraneoplastic syndromes include weight loss, loss of appetite, fever, sweats and high blood pressure. Laboratory findings include elevated red blood cell sedimentation rate, low blood count (anemia), high calcium level in the blood, abnormal liver function tests, elevated alkaline phosphatase in the blood, and high blood count. In many cases, the paraneoplastic syndrome resolves after the cancer is removed.

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To learn more about this condition we recommend you visit the following website www.urologyhealth.org