How Do I Know What My Kidney Cancer Prognosis Is?
Kidney cancer prognosis is a medical term that is used by medical professionals to relay a person’s possibility of survival or cure once kidney cancer has diagnosed. The sooner the disease is discovered the better the prognosis will be.
Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that affects the kidneys which are responsible for making urine and producing red blood cells. When cells are produced unnecessarily it can cause an over abundance of cells and this in turn can lead to the formation of tumors.
There are essentially two types of tumors. These include benign and malignant. Benign tumors usually are not cancerous and are limited to one area. In most cases these can be removed and most likely will not return. Malignant tumors are generally cancerous and can be life threatening. These tumors have the ability to spread or metastasize to other areas of the body as well as being likely to return after removal.
There are many symptoms that a person may develop that serve as the body’s way of letting a person know that there is a problem. By knowing these symptoms a person is more aware of the need to seek the advice of a professional. Some of these symptoms include constipation, blood in the urine, dark, rusty or brown urine, changes in vision and high blood pressure to name a few. Most of these symptoms can also be associated with other illnesses and diseases so if you experience any of these or others you should consider seeing your family physician.
The sooner this disease is diagnosed the better the kidney cancer prognosis will be. In many cases however kidney cancer is not discovered until later stages making it much more difficult to treat. This also causes survival rates to decrease.The earlier the disease is discovered the better the chances of survival will be.
If kidney cancer is discovered in the early stages the chances of treatment being successful is generally at a high level.
However if it is not discovered until later stages the chances decrease significantly. With every stage that passes undetected the survival rate gets lower. This is because some treatments need to be started in the earliest stage possible with some being almost completely ineffective in the late stages of kidney cancer.
Many individuals with stage 1 kidney cancer are able to undergo treatment with a good chance at survival while those who do not receive treatment until stage 4 are much less likely to survive. It has been determined that about 25% of individuals with stage 4 kidney cancer do not survive.
Although the stage of cancer is a factor in determining a kidney cancer prognosis there are also other factors that are considered as well. Some of these factors include the age and general health of the person as well as the type of kidney cancer that has developed. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer found in adults but there are several other types as well.
