Kidney Cancer : In Depth - Overview
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Some people use statistics to try to figure out their chance of getting cancer or of being cured. Statistics show what happens to large groups of people. Because no 2 people are alike, you cannot use them to predict what will happen to you.
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Kidney cancer is a cancer that starts in the kidneys. These are 2 bean-shaped blood-filtering organs located in your lower back.
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There is really no way to know for sure if you're going to get kidney cancer. Certain factors can make you more likely to get kidney cancer than another person. However, just because you have one or more risk factors does not necessarily mean you will get the disease. In fact, you can have all the risk factors and not get kidney cancer, or you can have no known risk factors and still get it.
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You have little control over some of the risks for kidney cancer. But others you can control. Certain lifestyle changes may make a big difference in helping to prevent kidney cancer. If they apply to you, try making the following changes. If you have several risk factors, discuss these with your doctor, who may check you more frequently for the signs and symptoms of kidney cancer.
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For the average person, screening for kidney cancer is not usually recommended. Doctors cannot feel small kidney tumors during routine physical exams because your kidneys are deep inside your body. There is no urine or blood test available to test for kidney cancer. And tumors are often large before they cause pain or other symptoms. For these reasons, a doctor often finds kidney cancer during later stages. In fact, it is often found while a person is being checked for other reasons.
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Kidney cancer often causes no symptoms in its early stages. As the cancer grows, signs and symptoms like these may develop.
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Blood in your urine is a condition known as hematuria. Most of the time, the cause of hematuria is not serious. However, blood in the urine should never be ignored. Your doctor can evaluate you to identify the cause of the bleeding and treat it, if necessary.
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A wide range of problems can lead to blood in the urine. Some of the most common causes—such as kidney or bladder stones, enlargement of the prostate, and infection—are often easily treated.
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Kidney cancer is cancer that begins in the kidneys. Like most types of cancer, it begins small and grows over time. Cancer cells may be limited to the kidney. Or the cells may break away from a tumor and spread to other parts of the body. This spread is called metastasis. When kidney cancer spreads, it is still called metastatic kidney cancer. For example, if cancer spreads to the liver, the cancer cells in the new tumor are still kidney cancer cells, and it's called metastatic kidney cancer, not liver cancer.
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To help you understand what's happening, it may help to understand more about the anatomy of your kidneys. The kidneys are 2 bean-shaped organs located in your lower back. You have one kidney on either side of your spine. They are protected by the lower rib cage.
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Now that you are facing treatment for cancer, you may have concerns that you want to share. If you do want to talk, you may not know how to start. These ideas may help.
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