What does prevention of kidney cancer include?

  • regular preventive examination of an urologist
  • annual ultrasound examination, especially of men older than 50 years
  • a healthy lifestyle, the absence of bad habits.

What are the symptoms of kidney cancer

Kidney cancer does not manifest itself at the initial stages. A first symptom usually is blood in the urine. It appears when a tumor growth and affects a blood vessel in the kidney. For the successful treatment, a kidney cancer needs an early diagnosis. That is why doctors recommend annual X-ray and ultrasound, especially for people older than 50 years.


Undergo a diagnostics



Due to using of innovative diagnostic methods, an accurate diagnosis is established for the shortest period.

But there is a difficulty because most of the patients with carcinoma in the kidney do not have any symptoms at the initial stages. Only in 10% of cases patients can notice blood in the urine and drawing pain in the body side.

Patients’ pain in case of kidney tumor

Sometimes, patients’ complaints are connected with the beginning of metastasizing: bone ache, a disorder of breathing, the lymph nodes enlarge - all these are the signs of metastatic development.

Other signs of a tumor:

  • fatigue;
  • increased body temperature;
  • significant loss of body weight;
  • an increase in the platelet count in the analysis.

Kidney examination

A standard examination of a patient includes CT with contrast.

Computer tomography is an X-ray examination with a large number of images. Thanks to them, a doctor understands the nature of the disorders in the entire body. Contrast is an introduction of a safe contrast substance in the vein. It is used to get precise information from the images. This method is compulsory for the diagnosis of a malignant tumor.

CT helps to estimate changes in the kidney, detect metastasizing. After the examination, a doctor chooses an effective treatment plan and determines the volume of surgical intervention.

Metastases usually affect the lungs, so a compulsory procedure is an examination of the thoracic cage using CT.

PET-CT (positron emission tomography) is widely used for diagnostics of the majority of carcinomas, in case of kidney cancer is not conducted.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Doctors examine the abdominal cavity with MRI if there are contradictions for conducting of CT or suspensions of a tumor in the low vena cava.

If a patient has frequent migraines, dizziness, speech dysfunction, specialists prescribe MRI with a contrast of the brain. Pain in the bones is a signal to conduct a scan of the skeleton - scintigraphy. During its performing, a contrast is accumulating in the field of metastases. A procedure allows seeing the size of the affected bone area. A drug does not cause any harm to a patient's body.

How is a biopsy of kidney conducted?

Biopsy is a primary method for diagnosing any oncological disease. Doctors perform a biopsy of kidney under control of CT or ultrasound.

During a procedure, a doctor inserts a long needle into the kidney area and takes a little amount of kidney tissue. Then a histologist makes a conclusion, establishes a diagnosis, determines the nature and the stage of tumor development.

A biopsy is a final option to establish kidney cancer diagnosis. Doctors do not apply it when the presence of a malignant tumor in the kidney is obvious according to symptoms, the results of CT, ultrasound. A biopsy is performed if a benign tumor is suspected.

Doctors do such a diagnostics under local anesthesia. Note that a kidney biopsy rarely causes such complications:

  • bleeding;
  • spread of carcinoma in the area where the needle was inserted.