Warning signs of kidney cancer

Currently, Vietnam does not have complete statistics on the number of people with kidney cancer, but it is ranked number 3 in the total number of urinary system cancers.

The disease has 4 stages of development and according to statistics, the rate of people with the disease who can live 5 years after kidney removal in stage 1 is 60-85%, stage 2 is 80%, stage 3 is 30-35%, stage 4 is 3%.

Signs of kidney cancer

Normal kidney (left) and cancerous kidney (right)

The signs of the disease in the early stages are unclear, up to 40% of cases are detected through regular health check-ups. However, to some extent, the patient will have typical symptoms such as:

Blood in urine

This is the most typical symptom of kidney cancer. Patients with hematuria have continuous, painless convulsions, and the total amount of blood in the urine can be seen with the naked eye.

This condition can last for a long time or a short time depending on the development of the disease. If the bleeding lasts for a long time, it can be accompanied by abdominal pain in the kidney area due to a blood clot in the ureter.

Kidney pain

Often seen in people with terminal illness. When the tumors grow large and press on the kidney cysts. Or you may feel pain in the lumbar region because the tumors have invaded a large area around.About 50% of patients with kidney cancer have this symptom.

Tumor appearance

1/3 - 1/4 of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer have tumors in the areas surrounding the kidney. One worrying thing is that tumors often develop hiddenly, until they reach a certain size before they can be found during examination.

If a person with kidney cancer can feel the tumors around the kidney area, it means the kidney cancer is in the final stage.

Pain radiating to the lumbar region

Whole body manifestations

According to statistics, about 10-40% of people with kidney cancer have the above combined syndromes due to side effects caused by tumors.In addition, there may be accompanying symptoms such as: high ESR, increased blood sugar, high blood pressure, fever, weight loss, anemia. Of these, about 2-3% of people have venous insufficiency or internal varicose veins.

Symptoms of metastatic kidney cancer

About 10% of people with kidney cancer are diagnosed with metastases. Of the total number of newly diagnosed patients, up to 30% have metastases.Therefore, medical specialists advise us to have regular health check-ups to detect diseases early and treat them promptly.

Those who discover they have one of the three signs: blood in urine, kidney pain and a tumor as above must quickly see a doctor.Because most people with kidney cancer only have 1-2 of the above symptoms, only about 10% have all 3 signs.

Treatment methods

Treatment principles:

-The method of choice is nephrectomy with lymph node dissection, adrenalectomy, perirenal fat removal, ovarian or spermatic vessel resection, and total ureterectomy after venous thrombosis removal. This is the classic method.

- Nephrectomy for symptomatic treatment in case of severe bleeding.Metastasis to a site requires surgery to remove.

- Partial nephrectomy: In case of cancer on 1 kidney or small tumor.

- Renal artery embolization: For patients who cannot undergo surgery.

- Radiation: Applied in cases of bone metastasis.

- Chemotherapy: Some anti-cancer chemicals have been used, but so far they have not been very effective.

- Immunotherapy: Many authors are currently using Cytokines such as Interferon and Interleukin for treatment with quite good results.

- Hormone therapy: Some methods use progesterone, androgen, antiestrogen for treatment, but the effectiveness is unclear.

Total nephrectomy

Assign

This is the first choice method in treating kidney cancer with the aim of curing patients in the early stages or treating symptoms (pain, hematuria) in the late stages. Even kidney cancer with metastases (lymph nodes, liver, brain), total nephrectomy is still indicated with the aim of slowing the growth of metastases and prolonging the patient's life.

Principle

Surgery includes total nephrectomy with lymph node dissection, adrenalectomy, perirenal fat resection, ovarian or spermatic vessel resection, and total ureterectomy after venous thromboembolism removal.

This is the classic method. The incision must be wide enough to easily access the vascular pedicle and remove the entire tumor and surrounding fat tissue as well as the renal vessels. The commonly used incision is the transperitoneal subcostal approach.

Atypical nephrectomy

- Kidney removal for symptomatic treatment in case of heavy bleeding or pain.

- Metastasis to a location that requires surgery to remove.

- Partial nephrectomy: in case of cancer on 1 kidney or small tumor.

Renal artery occlusion

For patients who cannot undergo surgery.

Radiation

It is only a temporary treatment, applied in cases of bone metastasis, aimed at pain relief.

Chemotherapy

Some anti-cancer chemicals have been used, but so far they have not been very effective and are only temporary treatments.

Immunotherapy

Many authors are currently using Cytokines such as Interferon and Interleukin for effective treatment in some cases, but the drug price is still very expensive.

According to khoahoc.tv