What are the Risk Factors for Kidney Cancer? and Warning Signs of Kidney Cancer ?

Risk Factors for Kidney Cancer

Some people's particular habits, activities, lifestyles, or genetics make them more susceptible to certain forms of cancer. Several risk factors, below, have been identified as increasing the risk of developing kidney cancer.

Smoking and Kidney Cancer:
Cigarette smoking has been shown to double the risk of kidney cancer and contributes to as many as one-third of the cases.

Obesity, Diet and Kidney Cancer:
Obesity and a high fat diet raises the risk of kidney cancer, according to some studies.

Workplace Exposure and Kidney Cancer:
Exposure in the workplace to chemicals including petroleum products, heavy metals, cadmium (in batteries, paints, or welding materials), or asbestos can increase the risk of kidney cancer.

Certain Genes and Kidney Cancer:
Changes in certain genes (either inherited or affected by environmental factors) can increase the risk of developing kidney tumors.

Certain Disorders and Kidney Cancer:
People with disorders such as von Hippel Lindau (VHL) syndrome caused by an inherited gene mutation; polycystic disorders affecting the kidneys, liver or pancreas; or those on long-term dialysis, are at an increased risk for developing kidney cancer.

Warning Signs of Kidney Cancer

Because routine imaging tests are now relatively common in the U.S., most people with kidney cancer never experience any symptoms and are diagnosed with the disease at an early stage. If symptoms do develop, the most common one is blood in the urine. Other symptoms include: lower back pain that does not go away; a lump in the abdomen; fatigue; loss of appetite and rapid weight loss for no apparent reason; fever unrelated to a cold, flu, or other infection; swollen ankles and legs; high blood pressure; low red blood cell counts (anemia).

It is important to report any of these symptoms to your physician since kidney cancer that is found and treated early can have a higher survival rate.

Diagnosis

Patients of kidney cancer need a complete staging work up to plan the line of management. Quite often it is a multidisciplinary approach which gives best results for an individual patient. It needs good physical examination along with complete blood tests like haemogram, blood chemistry, radiological imaging like ultrasound, CT scan, and MRI scan. Histological diagnosis is to be confirmed

by FNAC/trucut biopsy.

 In the early stage (localised kidney tumour, not spread to distant organs in the body), it is managed better with radical surgery, which is curative in majority of patients.

Radiation is one more modality of treatment that is advised in a very selective group of patients.

 Kidney cancer (RCC) is considered as one of the radio resistant and chemoresistant cancers with very poor response. For advanced stage RCC, biologic therapy/immunotherapy (like Interferon/ Interleukin-2) along with chemotherapy had been used for a long time with limited benefit.

Treatment

Surgery is the main treatment for kidney cancer that hasn’t spread outside the kidney (stages 1 and 2). If the tumour is small, the surgeon will usually only remove the part of the kidney containing the tumour. But in some cases, depending on the size of the cancer, the whole kidney may need to be removed (nephrectomy). This is sometimes done using keyhole surgery.

In some situations, treatments that destroy the cancer cells using heat (radiofrequency ablation) or extreme cold (cryotherapy) can be used to treat small kidney cancers instead of an operation. There is currently no standard treatment given to reduce the risk of kidney cancer coming back after surgery (called adjuvant treatment).

Advanced Cancer

Even when the cancer has spread outside the kidney, your surgeon may still advise you to have an operation to remove the kidney. This can help to slow down and control the cancer. You’ll usually have treatment with a targeted therapy drug as well.

When kidney cancer has spread outside the kidney and to other parts of the body the main treatment is targeted therapy. Occasionally radiotherapy, chemotherapy orhormonal therapy treatment is used.