Kidney Failure Due to Cancer & Chemotherapy

Kidney failure due to cancer and chemotherapy may be reversible once the drugs and treatment that caused the dysfunction are ceased.

Identification

• Kidney failure, medically described as acute renal failure, occurs when the kidneys are unable to acceptably perform their primary function of filtering waste from the body.

Significance

• Cancer chemotherapy has the potential to bring about this failure by damaging the blood vessels, cells and structure of a kidney.

Warning

• According to the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center, a wide variety of chemotherapy drugs are known to cause kidney damage in 10 percent or more of patients, with other drugs bringing about renal failure in 30 percent or more of cases.

Effects

• The kidneys face susceptibility to damage due to their role as the body’s waste-processing plant. “Many of the breakdown products of chemotherapy drugs are excreted through the kidneys,” says The American Cancer Society. “These drug by-products can damage the kidneys, ureters and bladder.”

Considerations

• Physicians will conduct regular blood tests to monitor kidney function during and after cancer treatment. A history of previous kidney illness increases the risk of damage.