Kidney Cancer

Kidney cancer affects men about twice as often as women. Most people who contract this disease are over the age of 50.

Causes

The exact causes of kidney cancer are not well understood. kidney cancer is not contagious; no one can "catch" any type of cancer from another person.
Scientists have learned that smoking is a major risk factor for kidney cancer. Smokers are twice as likely to get this disease as nonsmokers. Several studies also suggest that the risk of developing kidney cancer may be higher than average among people with certain jobs. Groups with increased risk include coke oven workers and those who work with asbestos. Research also shows that being overweight can increase the chance of getting some types of cancer. kidney cancer may be one of them.

Symptoms

The most common symptom of kidney cancer is blood in the urine. In some cases, a person can actually see the blood. It may be present one day and not the next. Another symptom of kidney cancer is a lump or mass that can be felt in the kidney area. The tumor may cause a dull ache or pain in the back or side.

Investigation

To diagnose kidney cancer, the patient's personal and family medical history is taken and a thorough physical examination is conducted. In addition to checking temperature, pulse, blood pressure, and other general signs of health, the doctor usually orders blood and urine tests and one or more of the below mentioned exams :

Treatment

If these tests suggest that a tumor is present, it is important to know the extent, or stage, of the disease. Because kidney cancer can spread to the bones, lungs, liver, or brain, staging procedures may include special x-rays and tests to check these organs.
Treatment for kidney cancer depends on the location and size of the tumor and whether the cancer has spread to other organs. kidney cancer is treated with surgery, embolization, or hormone therapy, biological therapy, or chemotherapy, which are forms of systemic therapy and rarely Radiation therapy.

Surgery

Most kidney cancer patients have surgery, an operation called Radical nephrectomy. In some cases, the surgeon removes the whole kidney or just the part of the kidney that contains the tumor. More often, the surgeon removes the whole kidney along with the adrenal gland and the fat around the kidney. Also, nearby lymph nodes may be removed because they are one of the first places where kidney cancer spreads. Finding cancer cells in the lymph nodes means there may be cancer elsewhere in the body.

Radical Nephrectomy is major surgery. For a few days after the operation, most patients need medicine to relieve pain. Discomfort may make it difficult to breathe deeply, and patients have to do special coughing and breathing exercises to keep their lungs clear. Patients may need IV (intravenous) feedings and fluids for several days before and after the operation. Nurses will keep track of the amount of fluid the patient takes in and the amount of urine produced. The remaining kidney takes over the work of the one that was removed.

Embolization

In embolization, a substance is injected to clog the renal blood vessels. The tumor shrinks because it does not get the blood supply it needs to grow. In some cases, embolization makes surgery easier. When surgery is not possible, this treatment may help reduce pain and bleeding.

Embolization can cause pain, fever, nausea, or vomiting. These problems are treated with medicine. Often, patients also require intravenous fluids.

The Link Between Kidney Cancer and Asbestos

While many people know of the connection between asbestos exposure and lung cancer, you may not realize that ingesting or inhaling asbestos has also been linked to kidney, or renal, cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 12,980 Americans die of renal cancer each year. Although you cannot protect yourself from everything that may cause kidney cancer, you can avoid asbestos to minimize that risk factor.

As well as asbestos, there are other risk factors that can increase your chance of developing kidney cancer. Other workplace hazards include cadmium, benzene, trichloroethylene, and some herbicides. Additionally, smoking and suffering from obesity can also increase your risk. Interestingly, however, the rates of kidney cancer have been rising since the 1970s. While this could be attributed to better cancer detection techniques, it could also be that people who were exposed to asbestos before it was banned are now developing this type of cancer.

The problem with asbestos is that it was a very popular material before doctors realized the dangers of the fibers. Although even the ancient Greek and Roman cultures utilized asbestos, it did not become widely-used until the Industrial Revolution. During that time, people noted the need for insulating materials for the engines and piping now in place in buildings and ships.

People turned to asbestos because it has amazing insulating abilities. Asbestos is part of the silicate family of minerals. Silicates are known for their ability to resist heat, flame, chemicals, and biodegradation. Besides these useful characteristics, asbestos was also helpful because it has high tensile strength and flexibility.

Due to these helpful properties, it is no surprise that asbestos became a staple for construction, automotive, shipping, and other industries. In building construction alone, asbestos could be found in the insulation, vinyl flooring, counter tops, roofing tar, and roofing tiles. Ships were built using asbestos insulation as well. Lastly, the automotive industry utilized this material for brake pads, brake shoes, clutch pads, and gaskets.

Asbestos can cause renal cancer because your body is unable to process the fibers. When asbestos particles are released into the air or water, you can inhale or ingest the fibers. Once in your body, they can become lodged in your organs or cycle around the bloodstream since your body cannot break them down. If they are in the blood, they can get caught in the filtering area of the kidneys. From here, they can become stuck in the kidneys and cause malignant tumors.

Kidney cancer can be especially dangerous because it is so close to the bloodstream. If the tumor in the kidney is malignant, it can break off and flow through the blood to another part of the body.

Information About Kidney Cancer

While there are many types of cancer that end up involving the kidneys, the term kidney cancer has been determined to refer to those cancers that actually originate in the kidneys themselves. The two most common forms of cancer that fit this description are renal cell carcinoma and urothelial cell carcinoma.

Renal cell carcinoma starts in the tubes of the kidneys that filter the blood and get rid of the waste products. It is the most common kidney cancer in adults, accounting for eighty percent of the adult kidney cancers found in adults and is also the most lethal of the kidney cancers.

Symptoms of renal cell carcinoma include blood in the urine, pain in the side or sides of the body just below the rib cage to just below the pelvis, a palpable mass in the abdomen, and hydronephrosis, which is an enlargement and misshaping of the renal pelvis and calyces, due to the blockage of the free flow of urine from the kidney.

Treatment of renal cell carcinoma focuses on the removal of the obstruction and draining of the urine from the kidney or kidneys involved.

The second of the two most common form of kidney cancer is urothelieal cell carcinoma. It forms itself in the tissue that lines the hollow spaces which are part of the two kidneys. This form of kidney cancer has proven itself to be very difficult to treat effectively. One common form of treatment is surgery, removing the tumor, however it is very often replaced by another tumor.

Another form of treatment used to combat renal cell carcinoma is chemotherapy, that is the use of chemicals to combat the cancer.

Medical studies seem to point to such things as the use of phenacetin as a painkiller, smoking, being exposed to secondhand smoke and the excessive drinking of alcoholic beverages as causes for the formation of renal cell carcinoma.

Ironically enough, recent medical studies seem to indicate that the use of cyclophosphamide to combat other forms of cancer seems to contribute to causing urotheliel cell carcinoma in the kidneys. This makes one wonder if there are times when one might aggressively combat one form of cancer, only to risk giving oneself another form of cancer by so doing.

The best way to fight kidney cancer, or any form of cancer for that matter, is to do all that one can to live in such a way as to prevent its formation. This means eating healthy foods such as vegetables and fruits and getting 

Kidney Cancer Symptoms

Kidney cancer has direct links to a person's urine because the kidneys play a vital role in filtering waste products out of our blood. And like other forms of cancer, kidney cancer may not immediately produce symptoms or, if and when symptoms do appear they may have done so for reasons other than cancer. A person with an infection or a cyst for example, will present as would someone with kidney cancer. Initially a tumor in the kidney may be very small in which case there may well be few if any symptoms at all.

Kidney cancer is likely to be found more in people over 55 years of age and is more common in men than in women. There are several factors which are believed to influence the cause of kidney cancer and the interesting thing is that many of these factors are able to be controlled by the patient; two excellent examples being smoking and obesity. Don't smoke and do lose weight are two ways to reduce your risk of developing kidney cancer.

Symptoms of this disease are as follows:

o Blood is seen in one's urine and this is the most common symptom. But this symptom can be because a person has kidney stones, an infection or, in the case of many men, an enlarged prostate gland.

o A lump or swelling in the area of the kidney.

o General lethargy and tiredness.

o A pain or ache which persists in the lower back or lower side.

o Sudden weight loss and/or loss of appetite.

o Sweating, fever and the like.

The kidneys carry out vital roles within the body including filtering blood and making hormones. These hormones regulate blood pressure, control calcium levels and help in the manufacture of red blood cells. Healthy kidneys go a long way to making a healthy body.

There are some interesting facts about kidney cancer. The first is that most kidney cancers are discovered when the doctor is checking a patient for something unrelated to kidney cancer. We each have two kidneys and to have a kidney removed in order to beat the disease normally makes little difference. We are usually able to function quite normally with just one kidney. In fact some elite athletes perform and perform well having had one of their kidneys removed. In some cases of kidney cancer, only a part of the diseased kidney is removed leaving the patient with one and half kidneys, so to speak, to continue living a healthy and normal life.

As with any form of cancer, any patient who has one or more of the symptoms listed above should immediately see their doctor and explain their condition. It may be there no cancer present but if there is, the sooner the tests are carried out and the treatment begun, the better are your chances of a good recovery.

The health of our blood is greatly influenced by the health of our kidneys. Give them the best chance to shine by avoiding bad things and giving your body all the goodness of natural, healthy living.

Kidney Cancer Survival Rate

In today's generation renal diseases have been very common in almost every age range. Almost every snack today has high sodium content that contribute more and more to destroying our kidneys. From noodles to junk food, even seasonings used to add flavor to the food we eat our home are huge contributors to having renal disease in the future. Our kidney is an integral part of our body; they filter our blood and transmit others as waste products in our body. As of today many kidney related diseases have pop out due to abuse, from kidney failure, high blood pressure and diabetes, all these can lead to a worse disease called kidney cancer. Kidney cancer survival rate at the worst stage can range from five to fifteen percent chances of survival.

Kidney cancer survival rate like any other forms of cancer diminishes when the malignant cells start to expand to other regions of the body. At the initial stage, if diagnosed and treated early, a person with this type of cancer has a recovery chance of eighty to ninety percent. Operation and chemotherapy may be required for anyone who has cancer so that they could determine if the cancer cells have finally stopped spreading. At stage two, there is a slight depletion in the chances of survival to seventy five to sixty five percent. Usually in this stage, the malignant cancer tumor has started to expand in the kidney so it is noticeable in medical equipments. At the third stage where the tumor starts to expand to nearby tissues the chances of survival goes down to forty to seventy percent.

People must always be ready for anything that comes their way. We see healthy people get dreaded diseases like cancer without them knowing it. Cancer is a disease that no one is limited to having; even children can be affected by this at a very young age. What's important is to have a healthy lifestyle and always be cautious on what you feel in your body. Always keep it in your mind that you shouldn't be scared if you found out you have kidney cancer, since kidney cancer survival rate greatly depend if you got screened at an earlier stage.