Kidney Cancer
Kidney cancer represents around 2% of all cancer diagnoses worldwide.
Kidney cancer is a cancer that starts in the kidneys. Usually only one kidney is affected. It is more common in men and the 5 year survival is around 80%.
Men are more likely to be diagnosed with kidney cancer than women. Most people are diagnosed between the ages of 60 and 70.
Screening for
Kidney Cancer
As most kidney cancers have minimal symptoms, most kidney cancers are now diagnosed by scans either ultrasound or CT. Occasionally kidney cancer presents with blood in the urine.
Treatment
Best treatment depends on the size and location of the cancer and the general health of the patient. If surgery is recommended if possible only the cancer is removed from the affected kidney.
Management options include observation only, surgery either removing the cancer only or the whole kidney (usually keyhole) or more minimally invasive options such as radio frequency ablation cryotherapy (not often used as not as reliable in curing the cancer).
Mark has performed around 500 of the laparoscopic surgeries for kidney cancer with a conversion to open surgery rate of <1%.
