Kidneys are two bean shaped organs residing behind abdominal organs. Kidneys’ main job is to remove excess water, salt and other waste and produce urine. When a cancer develops in kidney or renal pelvis, we call it kidney cancer.

There are different types of kidney cancers. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults. Children are more likely to develop a kind of kidney cancer called Wilms' tumour.

The incidence of kidney cancers is seemed to be increasing by time. This type of cancer is often detected in early stages by CT scans. Like many other cancers it may not show any major symptom, but as it advances, it starts to show few symptoms like:

• Blood in the urine.
• A lump or swelling in the kidney area or abdomen.
• Lower back pain or pain in the side that doesn’t go away.
• Feeling tired often.
• Fever that keeps coming back.
• Not feeling like eating.
• Losing weight for no reason that you know of.
• Something blocking your bowels.
• A general feeling of poor health.

 

Kidney cancers can occur due to various reasons. Smoking is always considered as a major factor. There are other risk factors like:

• Having high blood pressure. It is not known whether the increased risk is due to high blood pressure itself or the medicines used to treat it.
• Being overweight or having obesity.
• Taking certain pain medicines for a long time.
• Having certain genetic conditions.
• Having a long-lasting infection with Hepatitis C.
• Having kidney stones.

According to Statista, the cases between 2009 and 2021 has increased about 37.67% in men and 22.25% in women, in the USA.

Sources:

Kidney Cancer | CDC

Kidney cancer - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic

What Is Kidney Cancer?