Information on Renal Cancer

More than 28,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with renal cancer every year, and 11,000 die annually as a result of it. If caught early, renal cancer has a high rate of survival. It most often afflicts people over the age of 40 (although it is seen in small children), and strikes those between 50 and 70 particularly hard.

Identification

• Renal cancer occurs when a tumor grows in renal tissue, which filters the blood, or the renal pelvis, where urine collects before it is transported to the bladder.

Causes

• Doctors do not definitively know what causes renal cancer, though factors such as obesity, smoking, working in close proximity to asbestos, long-term use of the painkiller Phenacetin, those on long-term kidney dialysis or those diagnosed with Von Hippel-Lindau disease are suspected.

Symptoms

• Symptoms of renal cancer include blood in urine, a lump on one side or the lower back, fatigue, lower back pain not caused by an injury, swelling ankles and legs, unexplained weight loss, or fever not caused by another infection.

Stages

• Renal cancer has four stages: stage one is localized in the kidney; stage two indicates the cancer has spread to the perirenal fat; stage three indicates the cancer has left the kidney and is invading the blood vessels and/or lymph nodes; and stage four indicates the cancer has spread to other organs and begun growing.

Treatments

• Early stages of renal cancer (stages 1 and 2) involve surgically removing the kidney. After stage 3 or 4, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or immunotherapy are used because the cancer has spread beyond the kidney.