Metastatic renal cell carcinoma is a type of kidney cancer that can spread to other parts of the body. Risk factors include age, high blood pressure, smoking, and exposure to certain chemicals. Symptoms include blood in urine, back pain, and weight loss. Treatment options include surgery and immunotherapy, with a 75% survival rate if caught early. However, if the cancer has spread, the survival rate drops to 5-15%.
An adenocarcinoma is a cancer usually found in the lining of an organ. When cancer cells are first found in the tubes of the kidney, this is called renal cell carcinoma or metastatic renal cell carcinoma. Metastatic refers to how easily this cancer can spread to other parts of the body, although many people are lucky enough to find it before metastasis occurs and have a much higher survival rate. This is true for many cancers; early diagnosis tends to lead to a more favorable outcome.
There are many possible risk factors and causes for metastatic renal cell carcinoma. In general, this form of kidney cancer is more common in men who are at least 50 years of age or older. It also appears to have a higher prevalence rate among people with high blood pressure, smokers, people who are overweight, and people who are regularly exposed to certain chemicals, such as cadmium and asbestos. There are also some diseases that predispose people to metastatic renal cell carcinoma, including hereditary papillary renal cell carcinoma and hereditary Von Hippel-Lindau disease, which can cause cancer to grow in many different areas of the body.
It would certainly help if metastatic renal cell carcinoma always had immediate symptoms when a tumor begins to grow, but that’s not necessarily the case. As the cancer develops, symptoms often begin to emerge, usually including the presence of blood in the urine and discoloration of the urine, which may be pink or “cola-colored” brown. People might also experience back pain, especially on one side and located directly under the rib cage. As the disease begins to progress, dramatic weight loss often occurs. Other symptoms people might notice include the growth of a single testicle, fatigue, constipation, pale skin, and fever.
If people suspect this cancer or see their doctors due to the presence of symptoms like the ones just described, they can expect various types of tests. This could include laboratory tests of blood and urine and scans of the kidney area with ultrasound and possibly computed tomography (CT or CT) axial tomography. If and when metastatic renal cell carcinoma is diagnosed, the next thing doctors need to determine is whether metastases have occurred, and they can magnify the area of the body they scan and use other tools such as X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). ) to determine if the cancer has moved elsewhere. This helps determine the course of treatment.
In the early stages, metastatic renal cell carcinoma is usually treated aggressively with removal of the affected kidney, and doctors may recommend removing part of the bladder as well. Also, patients are usually given drugs that can block the growth of the cancer. Most people don’t get radiation therapy for this condition, and only a few will get chemotherapy; none of these methods are found to be particularly effective in treating this type of kidney cancer.
Doctors have found some success using immunotherapy to treat kidney cell cancer. In this type of treatment, also called biological therapy, the patient is given substances that are intended to strengthen their immune system, helping the body fight cancer. Immunotherapy can have very serious side effects, but some patients who tolerated the treatment went into long-term remission. Two drugs that have been used most successfully to treat this type of cancer are interferon alpha (IFNa) and interleukin-2 (IL-2).
If metastatic renal cell carcinoma is noticed early, treatment in the most optimistic estimates usually has a 75% survival rate at the five-year mark, and continued research into this condition may change this statistic over time. Unfortunately 95-85% of people are not alive at five years if the cancer metastasizes to other parts of the body. There continues to be hope that improved treatment methods will positively affect the survival rate on those with more advanced or aggressive disease.
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