Cancer isn’t a word anyone wants to hear, but more than 43,000 men and 25,000 men will be diagnosed with kidney and renal pelvis cancers this year. It’s important to educate yourself on kidney cancer and understand your risk. In this article, we’ll go over signs and symptoms, risk factors, and treatment of kidney cancer.

Signs and Symptoms of Kidney Cancer

Many people don’t show any signs or symptoms of kidney cancer in the early stages. When kidney cancer is found early, it’s usually found by chance during an imaging scan of the abdomen in patients who have other complaints. However, as the disease progresses, you may experience blood in your urine, pain in your lower back, a lump in your lower back or side of the waist, unexplained weight loss, night sweats, fever, and/or fatigue.

If you are experiencing any of these or any other concerning symptoms, it’s important to talk to your doctor. Many of these symptoms can also be a sign of other medical conditions or diseases and the earlier your doctor is able to pinpoint the issue, the sooner they’re able to treat it.

Risk Factors for Kidney Cancer

There are certain conditions or factors that may increase or decrease your risk of kidney cancer. While these don’t predict with absolute certainty whether you’ll have the disease or not, they are things to take note of. Some risk factors, like your gender or age, can’t be changed, but other risk factors like whether or not you smoke or are overweight are under your control. The most common risk factors for kidney cancer include:

• Smoking
• Being overweight or obese
• High blood pressure
• Gender (men are more likely to develop kidney cancer)
• Being on dialysis treatment for End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
• Family history of kidney cancer
• Certain genetic diseases
• Long-term use fo the drug phenacetin
• Exposure to asbestos or cadmium

Treatment of Kidney Cancer

While cancer is a scary word, the prognosis for kidney cancer is good. One of the most common treatment options for kidney cancer is surgery, and this is an option for people with Stage 1, 2, and 3 kidney cancer. Depending on the size of the tumor and cancer stage, part of the kidney can be removed, known as a partial nephrectomy, or all of the kidney and potentially surrounding tissues and lymph nodes may be removed, known as a radical nephrectomy. Additionally, there are nonsurgical options like thermal ablation, where the tumor is burned or frozen, active surveillance, and/or chemotherapy and radiation.

Health Systems Management, a dialysis management company, is based in Tifton, Georgia. Our company provides turnkey dialysis management services to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist dialysis clinics in North Carolina and Emory Healthcare dialysis clinics in the Atlanta, Georgia area. For more information about Health Systems Management, our locations and job openings for RNs, LPNs, PCTs and CCHTs please visit: healthsystemsinc.com

Primary Source: Kidneyfund.org