What are the types of kidney cancer? How to treat kidney cancer?

Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that develops in the kidneys. It's the most common male cancer, and the second most common type of cancer in men.

 The disease is also common in women, where it's known as kidney cancer in women or urogenital carcinoma. While kidney cancer is rare, knowing what to do if you think you have it can help extend a patient's life.

Types of kidney cancer

Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the cells that filter waste from the blood. There exists two major kinds of kidney cancer:

Cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer. It begins in bile ducts, which are small channels in the wall of the liver.

Bile duct cancer is more common among people of Chinese and Vietnamese descent.

It is rare in Caucasians, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Tubercular kidney cancer

Tubercular kidney cancer occurs when tumor cells invade the renal tubules, which are specialized structures that help the body absorb fluids. These areas are in the kidneys and are in close contact with the blood.

About 90 percent of kidney tumors come from the renal tubules.

Signs

When patients first get diagnosed with kidney cancer, they may experience few or no symptoms. This is because the disease starts slowly and affects only one part of the body at a all-time high.

 As a result, there are few signs that anything is wrong. It's important to notice changes in how you feel and act so you can get help as soon as possible. Early diagnosis may significantly raise your possibilities of recovery from the disease.

Treatment

Normally, doctors treat kidney cancer symptoms with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. This can significantly reduce or even eliminate tumor growth.

 Patients may also need blood transfusions from healthy blood cells that have been damaged but can be re-grown into unhealthy blood cells. Blood transfusions reduce blood cell death during treatment, making it possible to tolerate some of the effects of radiation on healthy cells.

 Doctors work carefully to keep their patients as comfortable as possible during treatment.

It's important to note that not all patients respond well to standard treatments for kidney cancer. In these cases, doctors may recommend more aggressive approaches, such as kidney surgery or kidney transplantation.

 Patients with severe or chronic symptoms may also need dialysis to stay alive while they're waiting for an available organ for transplantation.

 The good news is that most patients respond well to treatment; however, it's always best to be prepared if your doctor tells you to go to the ER if your symptoms aren't improving after a week or two of treatment.

While undergoing treatment for kidney cancer, patients may experience fatigue, thirst, weight loss and/or mouth sores or ulcers. Your doctor may prescribe medicine to help with these side effects- but taking medicine won't make you feel better on its own.

 It's important to stay hydrated and eat a healthy diet while you're recovering from treatment. Staying warm during cold weather and cool during hot weather helps with fatigue as well; staying active also helps with both aspects.

 Staying active and well-rested while recovering from treatment helps boost your immune system so you feel better and heal faster.

Radiotherapy

Radiation therapy is a special kind of treatment of cancer that makes use of radiation in the killing of cancer cells.

Radiation therapy uses low doses of radiation to destroy cancer cells.

Researchers do not fully understand how this type of treatment works. However, this may become a reason of number of side effects.

Some side effects may include:

fatigue

nausea

feeling weak or dizzy

headaches

a lump or swelling near the eye

As a result, a person will usually require treatment after surgery.

Surgery

The main goal of treatment is to remove the cancerous cells and prevent them from coming back.

Surgery consists of removing the kidney tumor and any surrounding tissue.

There is usually a complication rate of 10 to 25 percent when removing a kidney cancerous tumor, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Other treatment options

There are several different treatments that may be prescribed to treat kidney cancer.

One treatment option for lower-grade tumors is called diuretics. This means that the doctors will add fluids to the person's diet, helping the kidney cancer cells to move out of the blood.

Other treatment options may include:

cytarabine

carboplatin

gemcitabine

pemetrexed

The tumor can grow back, so the doctors will then give a person chemotherapy treatment.

If someone close to you has recently died of kidney cancer, it's natural to wonder if the same fate awaits you someday too.

 While nobody wants to deal with this possibility, it's always best to be prepared if your doctor tells you to go ahead and begin dialysis or accept a transplant if your kidneys aren't functioning properly after several weeks of Western treatments for kidney cancer.

 On the bright side, only about 10% of people with kidney tumors develop metastasis (cancer spreading from one part of the body to another). Therefore, having an organ donor who has avoided developing metastasis seems like a good thing when someone dies of kidney cancer in your family line!

Kidney cancer is a serious disease that can lead to death when left untreated; however, early detection and treatment options can improve patient outcomes in many cases. Therefore, knowing what these signs mean if you have kidney cancer - are vital!