Kidney Cancer
What Is It?
Kidney cancer is the 13th most common cancer diagnosed in the UK. In 2003, just under 6,700 people were diagnosed. Nearly 2 out 3 people diagnosed (62%) are over 65 years old. Kidney cancer is rare in people under 50. It affects many more men than women. Smoking increases your risk of getting kidney cancer. Faulty genes and inherited conditions also increase kidney cancer risk.Symptoms
Common symptoms are:
Blood in the urine
A lump or mass in the area of the kidney
Other more vague symptoms such as weight loss, sweats and tiredness
When kidney cancer first starts to develop, there are often no obvious symptoms.
Increasingly, kidney cancers are being picked up on ultrasound scans that are
done for other reasons. So they are being found at an earlier stage, and so are
less likely to have symptoms. Once the cancer begins to grow, the symptoms can
become more obvious.
Treatment
Surgery is the main treatment for kidney cancer that has not spread. For advanced kidney cancer (depending on spread):Surgery
Cryotherapy, high intensity ultrasound (HIFU) or radio frequency ablation (RFA)
Arterial embolisation
Radiotherapy
Biological therapy - interferon (IFN) or interleukin (IL-2)
Chemotherapy