Kidney Cancer
Renal cell carcinoma, a form of kidney cancer that involves cancerous changes in the cells of the renal tubule, is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults.
Causes, Incidence, And Risk Factors of Kidney Cancer:
Kidney cancer affects about 3 in 10,000 people, resulting in about 31,000 new cases in the US per year. Every year, about 12,000 people in the US die from kidney cancer. It is more common in men than women, usually affecting men older than 55.
Why the cells become cancerous and people develop kidney cancer is not known. A history of smoking greatly increases the risk for developing kidney cancer. Some people may also have inherited an increased risk to develop kidney cancer, and a family history of kidney cancer increases the risk.
People with von Hippel-Lindau disease, a hereditary disease that affects the capillaries of the brain, commonly also develop kidney disorders. Kidney disorders that require dialysis for treatment also increase the risk for developing kidney cancer.
The first symptom of kidney cancer is usually blood in the urine. Sometimes both kidneys are involved. The kidney cancer metastasizes (spreads) easily, most often to the lungs and other organs, and about one-third of patients have metastasis at the time of diagnosis.
Learn more about kidney cancer at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University. As a national leader in cancer care & research and ranked among the best treatment facilities in the country, it is one of only 38 cancer centers in the nation designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a Comprehensive Cancer Center. NCI designation is an assurance of excellent care and comprehensive treatment options, including access to the latest clinical trials.
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