Kidney | Tumor

Kidney Renal Cancer

Kidney Cancer – Also known as renal cancer is the result of malignant cells forming a tumor(s) on the kidneys, the majority of which begin in the tubules of the kidney. Undetected tumors can become very large. Renal cancer is among the top ten more common types of cancer for both males and females. The average age to be diagnosed with kidney cancer is 64 and it is very unusual for a young person to be diagnosed with renal cancer. Renal cancer remains difficult to detect early on for two main reasons: kidneys are located so deeply within the body that if a small tumor or lump of cancer is growing in one or both of the kidneys it is very difficult to detect by physical assessment, and there are no routine tests that have shown to cut down on overall death rate of kidney cancer so routine screenings are not currently recommended.

Types – There are five main types of renal cancer: Wilms tumor, lymphoma, sarcoma, transitional cell carcinoma, and renal cell carcinoma. Renal cell carcinoma is by far the most common accounting for about 85 percent of all types of renal cancer. The risk factors associated with kidney cancer and the resulting targeted therapy make this a high percentage of successful treatment if caught early usually by the results from a CT scan.

Symptoms – A kidney cancer symptom is something that is felt or experienced by an individual but not detected by someone else, for example, fatigue. Some possible symptoms of renal/kidney cancers are low back pain, loss of appetite, or fatigue.

Signs of Kidney Cancer – Signs in contrast to symptoms are something that can be detected by someone other than the person with the disease such as elevated blood pressure. Some of the possible signs of renal cancer are anemia, blood in the urine, a lump on the side or back, fever, or unexplained weight loss.

Ribbon – The kidney cancer awareness ribbon is orange.

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