The incidence of kidney cancer is increasing. Over 95 percent of kidney cancers are renal cell carcinoma. Men are twice as likely to get it as women, and smokers are twice as likely to get it as non-smokers.

Symptoms include blood in your urine, an abdominal mass, and pain in the lower side of your back, known as flank pain. Some people also have night sweats, weight loss, and anemia. Risk factors include smoking and exposure to industrial agents such as:
* chemically tanned leather,
* asbestos,
* cadmium,
* lead acetate used in newspaper printing, and
* petroleum products.

The most cost-efficient means of screening for renal cancer is with a routine urinalysis and a routine physical examination. High risk individuals should be screened yearly. Further tests include blood and urine tests, a chest x-ray, an abdominal X-ray, and an excretory urography. This test can tell you the stage of the cancer in 70 percent of cases. Unfortunately, by the time a third of the cases are diagnosed, the cancer has already spread, in most cases to the lungs, or liver and bone.

The main treatment is surgery. Removing the entire kidney is very effective when the cancer has not spread extensively. If it has spread, removing the kidney can sometimes ease symptoms caused by the tumor. Radiation therapy can be used to help pain.

To learn more about kidney cancer, call the American Cancer Society at (800) ACS-2345 or the National Cancer Institute at (800) 4-CANCER.

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