The kidneys are an essential part of the body's urinary system. Each kidney uses miniature filters to separate waste substances from the blood which is then excreted as urine. They also produce three very important hormones: erythropoietin, rennin and vitamin D. The most common kidney cancer is renal cell carcinoma which is 85% of all cases. In RCC, malignant cells develop in the lining of the kidney's tubules and form a mass of cells called a tumor. Kidney cancer accounts for 3% of all adult cancer in the United States.

Symptoms

The primary symptoms of RCC kidney cancer are:

Abdominal mass or lump; blood in the urine; fever; high blood pressure; pain the side or lower back; persistent fatigue; rapid, unexplained weight loss; swelling in the legs and ankles.

Treatments

Some of the treatment options for kidney cancer, after determining the stage of cancer and other consideration such as patient age and health, are:

• Surgery: is the most common treatment of RCC kidney cancer depending on the stage of the disease. Some of the surgery options are:
  • Partial nephrectomy: is the removal of part of the kidney when the tumor is small or confined to the top or bottom of the kidney.
  • Radical nephrectomy: is the removal of the entire kidney and adrenal gland. It may also include the removal of surrounding tissue and lymph nodes depending on whether or not the cancer has spread. There are two types of radical nephrectomy:
    • Open radical nephrectomy: is performed by making a large abdominal incision to remove the entire kidney.
    • Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy: is performed by making 4 or 5 smaller incisions and inserting an instrument, consisting of a light and camera lens that produces magnified images, to separate the kidney from the surrounding structures. The physician then enlarges one of the incisions to remove the kidney.
• Chemotherapy: uses drugs and/or chemical agents to destroy the cancer cells throughout the body.
• Radiation Therapy: uses high-energy x-rays to shrink tumors and destroy cancer cells.
• Hormone Therapy: uses agents such as estrogen, progesterone, and tamoxifen to stop some types of cancer from growing.
• Biological Therapy: uses agents such as interleukin and interferon to boost, restore or direct the immune system to fight the cancer in the same way the immune system would fight infection.
• Chemobiological Therapy: uses agents used in both chemotherapy and biological therapy to fight and destroy cancer cells.