Symptoms

The tumors which are in the kidney are identified in the routine screening. In some cases, the size or the location of the tumor makes the patient experience specific symptoms. The symptoms which are usual in this condition are anemia, presence of blood in urine and pain in the upper side of the abdomen, and also in the back. The other symptoms are weight loss, recurring fever and high blood pressure.

Diagnosis

Many tests can help the doctor to diagnose this condition and to know the stage or malignancy of cancer. The medical imaging techniques which can be used to diagnose renal cancer are CT, PET, ultrasound and MRI.

In many cases, a biopsy is also needed to know what the type of the cancer is growing in kidneys and how much aggressive it is. There is also a use of interventional image-guided methods to contain the samples of tissue.

Treatment

There are many options available for the treatment of this disease. Some treatments remove all or a single part of the kidney which is affected. In the past, the whole kidney needed to be removed. However, in some cases, the removal of only one part of the kidney has also been successful.

There is also an interventional method that can be used to treat this condition like thermal ablation. In this process, the interventional radiologist inserts a needle in the tumor by the use of image guidance and then delivers radiofrequency energy, microwave heat, high voltage current, or extremely cold gas energy to destroy the cancerous cells.

If the number of blood cells in the tumor is higher than average, it means that the tumor is hypervascular.

Such types of tumors are very hard to eliminate. If there is a patient who is facing this deadly condition, there is a process which is known as transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) for treatment. This process will help the patient to relieve the suffering and pain. In this process, the cancer-killing medicines are directly injected into the tumor. The medicines also deprive the tumor of oxygen and nutrients by breaking oxygen supply so it can eventually die.

Dr Nikolas Charalambous is named among the most prominent interventional radiologist. Get a free consultation for a minimally invasive treatment of brain, neck, and spine.