Renal cell carcinoma

Our kidneys are responsible for clearing our blood of unneeded minerals. The blood is filtrated and the unwanted residue than shed out of our body together with water in the form of urine. The kidney tubules take care of the correct water-mineral relation. A cell carcinoma implies that kidney cell have degenerated and furthermore clogged into malignant tumours. These tumours damage the kidney and can even beset neighbouring tissue. Single tumour cells may even wander through the lymph vessels or veins to other parts of the body (lung, liver, bone marrow, brain), where they settle and develop into dangerous metastasis. The formation of metastasis means that the patient's life expectancy is cut short to approximately one year.

The renal cell carcinoma is a very seldom type of cancer. Especially people who already suffer from a kidney disease, people who are overweight and smokers are at risk of getting kidney cancer. Chances of recovering from renal cell carcinoma are high, if the cancer is discovered at an early stage. This is indeed possible, even though the symptoms that initiate the visit to a physician do not seem to have any connections to cell carcinoma (anaemia, loss of weight, night-time fever) at first. Significant signs that directly point to cell carcinoma (urine that contains blood, renal angle tenderness, palpable tumour) usually appear, when the tumour has already advanced. An advanced tumour is palpable if big enough, small tumours can be detected through ultrasound, Radiography of the thorax, CT, MRI or PET. Furthermore, cancer cells secrete certain substances that can be used to help develop an appropriate therapy.