Kidney Cancer, What To Look For

Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that originates from the renal tubule and the renal pelvis of the kidney. There are two common types of this disease. One is the renal cell carcinoma and the other is the renal pelvis carcinoma. Most cancers that originate in the renal tubule are renal cell carcinoma and cell adenocarcinoma while those that originate from the renal pelvis are transitional cell carcinoma. Other less common types include squamous cell carcinoma, renal oncocytoma and mesoblastic nephroma.

One common symptom of kidney cancer is palpable mass in the abdomen, hematuria and hydronephrosis. The mass is first felt in the anterior lumbar region, between the margins of the ribs and then grows to the umbilicus and then up to the hypochondrium. Where the cases are extreme, the mass fills the entire belly. The location of the colon furnishes an important diagnostic mark of all types of kidney cancers.

Sometimes cancer in the kidney may be secondary, the result of metastasis. This is spreading from a primary cancer source elsewhere in the body to the kidney. There are certain types of kidney cancer that have a known hereditary risk. Worldwide, North America leads in the number of people diagnosed with this disease every year.

Fewer cases have been reported in Asia and Africa. In the United Kingdom, cancer of the kidney is the eighth most common cancer in men. In Europe, it accounts for nearly 3% of all cancer cases. It is the fourteenth most common cancer in women worldwide. Wilms’ tumors are most kidney cancers reported in children followed by congenital mesoblastic nephroma.