Because early diagnosis is so critical to improving survival rates, those at risk for the disease need to be able to recognize kidney cancer symptoms. If you’re curious about whether you’re at risk for this cancer and any potential signs or symptoms you should watch out for, keep reading.
Symptoms
Bloody Urine: Bloody urine is a common sign of kidney cancer. However, like many kidney cancer symptoms, it can also be associated with bladder cancer and other bladder-related ailments.
Back Pain: Many people diagnosed with kidney cancer experience low back pain that isn’t associated with an injury or other physical ailment.
Lump or Bump: In many kidney cancer cases, a mass or lump can be felt in the stomach.
General Fatigue: Though fatigue is not a specific symptom, meaning it’s often found in other diseases and cancer, it’s a common symptom of kidney cancer that can help doctors make a diagnosis.
Loss of Appetite: Unintentional weight loss that happens quickly can be a symptom of kidney cancer. Many patients lose their appetites, have trouble eating and digesting, and tend to lose weight quickly.
Fever: Frequent fevers that aren’t connected to some other infection, flu or cold are often associated with kidney cancer.
Swelling: Edema, also known as swelling in the lower legs is a typical kidney cancer symptom most apparent in women.
Higher Blood Pressure: Like many of the other symptoms listed above, high blood pressure can be attributed to numerous other diseases. However, if discovered alongside other symptoms, it can often be a good indicator for the disease.
Risk Factors for Kidney Cancer
Smoking: Approximately one-third of all cases of renal cell carcinoma (the most common form of kidney cancer) in men and one-quarter of cases in women are likely caused by smoking.
Analgesic Medication: Addictions to painkillers that contain phenactin, which is no longer approved in the United States, can dramatically increase a person’s risk for kidney cancer.
Exposure at the Work Place: Workers who are exposed to products like organic solvents, petroleum by-products, camium and asbestos all have an increased risk for developing kidney cancer.
Genetic Disorders: Genetic disorders of the kidney, such as tuberous sclerosis, von Hippel-Lindau disease or a heavy family history of the disease can all increase a person’s risk for developing kidney cancer.
Obesity: People who are obese or very overweight are more at risk for developing renal cell kidney cancer than those who maintain a healthy body weight.
Kidney Failure: People with a history of kidney failures may develop cysts in their kidneys as a result. These cysts can expedite the development of kidney cancer.
Advancing Age: Typically, renal cell carcinoma only develops in adults over the age of fifty and under seventy.
Male or Female: Men are twice more likely to develop kidney cancer, like renal cell carcinoma, than women.
If you have or have been exposed to any of the above risk factors for kidney cancer, it’s critical that you be aware of kidney cancer symptoms. Should you experience any of the listed symptoms, be sure to talk to your doctor without delay.
Posts Tagged ‘Linked’
Usual Indicators and Causes Linked to Kidney Cancer
Saturday, March 13th, 2010Spirituality Linked to Mental Health
Sunday, March 7th, 2010A new study finds that women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.
“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness,” says Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology. Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active.
Maselko offers one possible explanation for the gender differences in the relationship between religious activity and mental health. “Women are simply more integrated into the social networks of their religious communities. When they stop attending religious services, they lose access to that network and all its potential benefits. Men may not be as integrated into the religious community in the first place and so may not suffer the negative consequences of leaving,” Maselko said.
The study expands on previous research in the field by analyzing the relationship between mental health — anxiety, depression and alcohol dependence or abuse — and spirituality using current and past levels, said Maselko, who conducted the research when she was at Harvard University.
In the study sample, comprising 718 adults, a majority of men and women changed their level of religious activity between childhood and adulthood, which was critical information for the researchers. “A person’s current level of spirituality is only part of the story. We can only get a better understanding of the relationship between health and spirituality by knowing a person’s lifetime religious history,” Maselko said.
Out of the 278 women in the group, 39 percent (N=109) had always been religiously active and 51 percent (N=141) had not been active since childhood. About 7 percent of the women who have always been religiously active met the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder compared to 21 percent of women who had stopped being religiously active.
“Everyone has some spirituality, whether it is an active part of their life or not; whether they are agnostic or atheist or just ‘non-practicing.’ These choices potentially have health implications, similar to the way that one’s social networks do,” Maselko said.
How is Asbestos and Mesothelioma Linked
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010Persistent diseases like lung cancer and mesothelioma was extremely common in construction workers who were exposed to asbestos fibers or dust, doctors began making a connection between asbestos and mesothelioma. Shipping, construction and other workers, who were exposed to asbestos from the 1950s to the 1970s, when the dangers of asbestos was being recognized, are still suffering from the ill effects of asbestos exposure at work. More and more cases of people working under asbestos were infected with mesothelioma. So, Asbestos was considered a cause of mesothelioma. Various laws and regulations are in place, which is designed to prevent workers from exposure to toxic asbestos.
Workers who may have been exposed to asbestos in the 1970s, they are showing the symptoms of mesothelioma now. The reason behind this is that mesothelioma is slow to manifest. Mesothelioma cannot be diagnosed during its early stages. Because its symptoms take too long to manifest and it is often mistaken with those of other diseases, mesothelioma can be mistaken as pneumonia or other diseases during its early stages. The symptoms of mesothelioma include shortness of breath, abdominal swelling, chest pain, chronic cough, fever, weight loss, etc.
Different laws and regulations have limited the use of asbestos; mesothelioma takes a long period to develop means that it still has a large number of probable victims. Professions with the risk for asbestos exposure and mesothelioma are those which involved repeated exposure to asbestos in its industrial forms. These professions could be electricians, construction workers, bricklayers, mechanics, insulators and people involved with commercial or home construction before the 1970s.The families of these workers or people were also at risk, since they may have inhaled asbestos through the employee’s clothing or hair.
As more and people are getting aware of mesothelioma and asbestos there has been a significant amount of increase in lawsuits against companies who irresponsibly used asbestos, exposing their employees to the threat of mesothelioma and other life-threatening asbestos-related illnesses. If you were exposed to asbestos at any period of time you can get yourself diagnosed for mesothelioma. A mesothelioma sufferer or his family can contact an asbestos attorney who is experienced in mesothelioma litigation. A mesothelioma lawyer will help the person recover damages for the pain and suffering incurred through asbestos exposure.