About Renal cell carcinoma
Parts of following information are extract from Wikipedia and the ACS(American Cancer Society).
General information about RCC
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC, also known as hypernephroma) is a kidney cancer that originates in the lining of the proximal convoluted tubule, there are 2 kidneys, one on each side of the backbone, above the waist, the very small tubes in the kidney that filter the blood and remove waste products. RCC is the most common type of kidney cancer(1), and the most common type in adults, responsible for approximately 80% of cases. (The ACS:Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), also known as renal cell cancer or renal cell adenocarcinoma, is by far the most common type of kidney cancer. It accounts for about 9 out of 10 kidney cancers. CLICK TO SEE OTHER TYPES OF KIDNEY CANCER) Initial treatment is most commonly a radical or partial nephrectomy and remains the mainstay of curative treatment. Where the tumour is confined to the renal parenchyma, the 5-year survival rate is 60-70%, but this is lowered considerably where metastases have spread. (more details about Kidney Cancer Staging) It is resistant to radiation therapy and chemotherapy, although some cases respond to immunotherapy. Targeted cancer therapies such as sunitinib(my father is taking SUTENT,he is in stage 4, and can not have any surgery because his inferior caval vein is surrounded by cancer cells), temsirolimus, bevacizumab, interferon-alpha, and possibly sorafenib have improved the outlook for RCC (progression-free survival), although they have not yet demonstrated improved survival. (Personally i can’t agree with this conclusion,more about Targeted cancer therapies.)
Smoking and misuse of certain pain medicines can affect the risk of developing renal cell cancer.
Risk factors include the following:
- Smoking.
- Misusing certain pain medicines, including over-the-counter pain medicines, for a long time.
- Having certain genetic conditions, such as von Hippel-Lindau disease or hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma.
The classic triad is hematuria (blood in the urine), flank pain and an abdominal mass. This is now known, often incorrectly, as the ‘too late triad’ because by the time patients present with symptoms, their disease is supposedly advanced beyond a curative stage. (my experience is you dont really feel anything in RCC early stage, when you find blood in urine,or feel flank pain or an abdominal mass, it’s already the late stage of RCC,3rd or 4th. more details about How Is Kidney Cancer Staged) In addition, whilst this triad is highly suggestive of RCC, it only occurs in around 15% of the sufferers. Today, the majority of renal tumors are asymptomatic and are detected incidentally on imaging, usually for an unrelated cause.
Signs may include:
- Abnormal urine color (dark, rusty, or brown) due to blood in the urine (found in 60% of cases)
- Loin pain (found in 40% of cases)
- Abdominal mass (25% of cases)
- Malaise, weight loss or anorexia (30% of cases)
- Polycythemia (5% of cases)
- Anaemia resulting from depression of erythropoietin (5% of cases)
- The presenting symptom may be due to metastatic disease, such as a pathologic fracture of the hip due to a metastasis to the bone
- Varicocele, the enlargement of one testicle, usually on the left (2% of cases). This is due to blockage of the left testicular vein by tumor invasion of the left renal vein; this typically does not occur on the right as the right gonadal vein drains directly into the inferior vena cava.
- Vision abnormalities
- Pallor or plethora
- Hirsutism – Excessive hair growth (females)
- Constipation
- Hypertension (high blood pressure) resulting from secretion of renin by the tumour (30% of cases)
- Elevated calcium levels (Hypercalcemia)
- Paraneoplastic disease
- Night Sweats
- Severe Weight Loss
(1) Kidney cancer is any cancer that originates in a kidney (Kidneys in Traditional Chinese Medicine). The two most common types of kidney cancer, reflecting their location within the kidney, are renal cell carcinoma and renal pelvis carcinoma. The distinction between these two types is important because their most common histologies are different and consequently they respond differently to chemotherapy.
