Kidney Cancer
What is Kidney Cancer?
Kidney cancer (renal cell cancer) is the name given to a malignant tumor originating from the kidney. Kidney cancer accounts for 2-3% of all adult cancers. Kidney cancer usually occurs at older ages (over 60 years of age). It is also seen at an early age in some familial transmission types.
It is more common in men than women. It is a tumor of the kidney that most commonly arises from the cells that filter urine. In addition, cancer can spread through blood and lymph and settle in other areas of the body (bone, lung).
What are the symptoms of kidney cancer?
Nowadays, with the widespread use of imaging methods such as ultrasound and tomography, most of these cancers can be detected while they are limited to the kidney.
For this reason, while patients classically presented with blood in the urine, pain and a feeling of a mass in the side area in the past, kidney cancer can now be detected incidentally (during check-up examinations or imaging methods performed for other reasons) in patients who have no complaints.
Again, kidney cancer disrupts some metabolic balance mechanisms in the body and may cause complaints such as fever and night sweats, fatigue, anemia, increased calcium level in the blood, excessive blood volume in some patients, deterioration in liver functions and weight loss.
What are the Causes of Kidney Cancer?
As with many other types of cancer, the cause of kidney cancer has not yet been fully elucidated. The most important known risk factors for kidney cancer are; It was determined that there was smoking and excessive obesity. Additionally, it is stated that having a relative with kidney cancer in the family and high blood pressure are potential risk factors.
The risk of kidney cancer is twice as high in smokers as in non-smokers. Familial inheritance has also been shown, especially in some types of kidney tumors (such as Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome and Familial papillary polyposis Coli syndrome-Papillary cell cancer). Lifestyle changes, quitting smoking and maintaining a healthy weight can reduce the risk of cancer development.
How is Kidney Cancer Diagnosed?
Because there are various types of kidney tumors, a series of tests are performed to establish your condition. These tests include medical history and imaging (such as CT scans and MRIs). Family history can sometimes provide important information.
Abdominal computed tomography and/or MRI are used to reveal the size of the tumor and to determine whether it has spread to the kidney vessels, lymph nodes, or surrounding organs. This is important to determine future treatment. In addition, physical examination, blood and urine tests are performed.
How is kidney cancer treated?
In determining the right treatment for you, situations such as the spread of the cancer outside the kidney or throughout the body, factors related to the patient (internal diseases, medications used and general health condition), and the availability of hospital treatment options are carefully evaluated. However, the most important factor in choosing treatment is the stage of the disease.
Böbrek Kanseri Tedavileri
• Partial nephrectomy (removal of only cancerous tissue)
• Radical nephrectomy (removal of the entire kidney)
• Cytoreductive nephrectomy (in order to increase the response to future drug treatments by removing all or most of the cancer even though it has spread throughout the body)
• Active surveillance (clinical monitoring in very small masses or very old patients)
• Ablation treatments (Radiofrequency ablation (by heating) and Cryotherapy (by freezing)
• Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy and other drugs
• Radiation therapy (only to relieve bone pain in cancer that has spread to the kidney or bone with severe bleeding that cannot be stopped)
