Kidney Cancer
What Is Kidney Cancer?
Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the kidney. Cancer starts when cells in the body begin to grow out of control.
Kidney
The kidneys are a pair of bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist. They are attached to the upper back wall of the abdomen and protected by the lower rib cage. One kidney is just to the left and the other just to the right of the backbone. The upper and lower portions of each kidney are sometimes called the superior pole and inferior pole.
A small organ called an adrenal gland sits on top of each kidney. Each kidney and adrenal gland is surrounded by fat and a thin, fibrous layer known as Gerota’s fascia.
Normal structure and function of the lungs:
The kidneys’ main job is to remove excess water, salt, and waste products from blood coming in from the renal arteries. These substances become urine. Urine collects in the center of each kidney in an area called the renal pelvis and then leaves the kidneys through long slender tubes called ureters. The ureters lead to the bladder, where the urine is stored until you urinate.
The kidneys also have other jobs:
- • They help control blood pressure by making a hormone called renin.
- • They help make sure the body has enough red blood cells by making a hormone called erythropoietin. This hormone tells the bone marrow to make more red blood cells.
Our kidneys are important, but we can function with only one kidney. Many people in the India are living normal, healthy lives with just one kidney.
Some people do not have working kidneys at all, and survive with the help of a medical procedure called dialysis. The most common form of dialysis uses a specially designed machine that filters blood much like a real kidney would.
Types of kidney cancer
There are 2 main types of lung cancer
Renal cell carcinoma
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC), also known as renal cell cancer or renal cell adenocarcinoma, is the most common type of kidney cancer. About 9 out of 10 kidney cancers are renal cell carcinomas.
Although RCC usually grows as a single tumour within a kidney, sometimes there are 2 or more tumours in one kidney or even tumours in both kidneys at the same time.
There are several subtypes of RCC, based mainly on how the cancer cells look in the lab. Knowing the subtype of RCC can be a factor in deciding treatment and can also help your doctor determine if your cancer might be caused by an inherited genetic syndrome.
Rare types of renal cell carcinoma: These subtypes are very rare, each making up less than 1% of RCCs:
- • Collecting duct RCC
- • Multilocular cystic RCC
- • Medullary carcinoma
- • Mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma
- • Neuroblastoma-associated RCC
Unclassified renal cell carcinoma
Rarely, renal cell cancers are labelled as unclassified because the way they look doesn’t fit into any of the other categories or because there is more than one type of cancer cell present.
Transitional cell carcinoma
Of every 100 cancers in the kidney, about 5 to 10 are transitional cell carcinomas (TCCs), also known as urothelial carcinomas. Transitional cell carcinomas don’t start in the kidney itself, but in the lining of the renal pelvis (where the ureters meet the kidneys). This lining is made up of cells called transitional cells that look like the cells that line the ureters and bladder. Cancers that develop from these cells look like other urothelial carcinomas, such as bladder cancer, when looked at closely in the lab. Like bladder cancer, these cancers are often linked to cigarette smoking and being exposed to certain cancer-causing chemicals in the workplace.
People with TCC often have the same signs and symptoms as people with renal cell cancer − blood in the urine and, sometimes, back pain.
Renal sarcoma
Renal sarcomas are a rare type of kidney cancer that begin in the blood vessels or connective tissue of the kidney. They make up less than 1% of all kidney cancers.
Risk Factors
A risk factor is anything that increases your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some risk factors, like smoking, can be changed. Others, like your age or family history, can’t be changed. But having a risk factor, or even several risk factors, does not mean that you will get the disease. And some people who get the disease may have few or no known risk factors. Even if a person with kidney cancer has a risk factor, it is often very hard to know how much that risk factor contributed to the cancer.
Smoking
Smoking increases the risk of developing renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common type of kidney cancer. The increased risk seems to be related to how much you smoke. The risk drops if you stop smoking, but it takes many years to get to the risk level of someone who never smoked.
Obesity
People who are very overweight have a higher risk of developing RCC. Obesity may cause changes in certain hormones that can lead to RCC
High blood pressure
The risk of kidney cancer is higher in people with high blood pressure. This risk does not seem to be lowered even if someone is taking medicines to treat the high blood pressure.
Family history of kidney cancer
People with a strong family history of renal cell cancer (without one of the known inherited conditions listed below) have a higher chance of developing this cancer. This risk is highest for people who have a brother or sister with the cancer. It’s not clear whether this is due to shared genes, something that both people were exposed to in the environment, or both.
Workplace exposures
Many studies have suggested that workplace exposure to certain substances, such as trichloroethylene, increases the risk for RCC.
Sex
RCC is about twice as common in men as in women. Men are more likely to smoke and are more likely to be exposed to cancer-causing chemicals at work, which may account for some of the difference
Certain medicines
Acetaminophen: Some studies have suggested that acetaminophen, a common pain medicine, may be linked to an increase in the risk of RCC.
Certain medicines
Acetaminophen: Some studies have suggested that acetaminophen, a common pain medicine, may be linked to an increase in the risk of RCC.