Kidney Cancer: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis and Treatment

Kidney cancer incidence rates in the United States have risen dramatically since the 1950s. They have risen over 126 percent, translating into over 30,000 new cases a year. Death rates have risen by 36.5 percent, causing approximately 11,900 deaths a year.

Your kidneys are twin organs that play important roles in the urinary system, the production of red blood cells, and the control of blood pressure. Red-brown and approximately the size of a fist, they are located at the back of the abdominal cavity. Their main function is to filter excess fluids, salt and waste products from the body.

 

Kidney Cancer Statistics: It makes up three percent of all cancer cases. It's the eighth most common malignancy in men. It's the tenth most common malignancy in women.

This site focuses on renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common form of kidney cancer. Renal cell carcinoma accounts for up to 95 percent of all cases. The kidneys contain millions of tiny filters called nephrons. Nephrons in turn contain small tubes called tubules. RCC usually starts in the cells that line the tubules.

Smoking is one of the key risk factors for malignant renal tumors. Smoking doubles the risk of kidney cancer. The more you smoke, the greater the risk. Quitting smoking decreases risk levels.

In addition to cigarette smoke, a number of occupational and environmental hazards increase the risk of renal tumors. People who work with asbestos or petroleum products increase the possibility that they will contract the disease.
Incidence rates are also higher among steel plant coal oven workers. Exposure to heavy metals such as lead and cadmium may also raise risk levels.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, has been linked quite convincingly to RCC. Efforts to study the connections among obesity, high fat diets and RCC are inconclusive, but some evidence appears to indicate that a connection may eventually be established.

Advancing age appears to be correlated to the chance of developing renal tumors. Most cases of renal cell carcinoma occur between the ages of fifty and seventy, with an average age at diagnosis of 66. Gender also plays a significant role. Men are twice as likely as women to develop kidney cancer.

A family history of RCC may alert some individuals to the possibility of developing the disease, but heredity does not appear to play a large role. Rare genetic mutations can increase the chance of RCC. People living with tuberous sclerosis and von Hippel Lindau disease may develop it. Von Hippel Lindau disease causes tumors in the kidneys, eyes, spine and brain, and has an incidence rate one in every 36,000 births.

The use or, more properly, the over-use of phenacetin or acetaminophen-containing analgesics has been linked to increased chances of developing kidney tumors. Investigations into this claim are ongoing.

The long-term uses of dialysis machines by people with renal failure carries with it a slightly increased chance of developing RCC.

 

Wilms Tumor and Children Wilms tumor is a form of pediatric kidney cancer. Pediatric treatment options differ from those required for adult RCC. You can find out more about this childhood disease on this site's Wilms' tumor page.

 

 

American Cancer Society. (nd). How is Wilms' tumor treated? Retrieved April 23, 2003, from
www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_4X_How_is_
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American Foundation for Urologic Disease. (nd). Kidney cell renal cell carcinoma. Retrieved April 22, 2003, from
www.afud.org/conditions/kc.html#hatis.

 

Bernstein, L., Linet, M., Smith, M. A., Olshan, A. F. (1999). Chapter VI: Renal tumors. Cancer Incidence and Survival among Children and Adolescents: United State SEER Program 1975-1995 [NIH Publication No. 99-4649].

 

Fauci, A., Braunwald, E., Isselbacher, K., Wilson, J., Martin, J., Kasper, D., Hauser, S., & Longo, D. (ed.). Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 14th Edition. McGraw-Hill, NY, 1998.

 

Green, R. (nd). Kidney cancer: Renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Retrieved April 22, 2003, from
www.urologyinstitute.com/html/kidney_cancer__renal_cell_
carc.html.

 

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. (2002). Kidney cancer. Retrieved April 22, 2003, from
www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=DS00360#Causes.

 
National Cancer Institute. (updated 2002). What you need to know about kidney cancer. Retrieved April 22, 2003, from
www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/wyntk/kidney.

 

National Library of Medicine. (updated 2003). Wilms' tumor and other childhood kidney tumors: Treatment. Retrieved April 23, 2003, from
www.cancer.gov/templates/doc_pdq.aspx?version=healthprofession al&cdrid=62789#Section_22.

 

Pantuck, A. J., Zisman, A., Belldegrun, A. S. (2001). The changing natural history of renal cell carcinoma.The Journal of Urology, 166, 1611-1623.

 

Pritchard-Jones, K. (2002). Controversies and advances in the management of Wilms' tumour. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 87(3), 241-244.

 

Zwiezig, S. L. (2002). Cancer of the kidney. Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, 45(3), 884-891.