About Kidney Cancer

56% of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer have surgery to remove the tumour as part of their primary treatment.

13% of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer have chemotherapy as part of their primary treatment.

8% of patients diagnosed with kidney cancer have radiotherapy as part of their primary treatment.

There are many possible signs and symptoms of Kidney Cancer.

These include: blood in the urine, lower back pain (that is not caused by an injury), loss of appetite, lumps on the side or lower back, unintentional weight loss and a fever (that is not caused by an infection and that does not go away).

Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the kidneys. Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of your fist. They're located behind your abdominal organs, with one kidney on each side of your spine. In adults, renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer. A person's risk of developing any kind of cancer depends on many factors including age, genetics and exposure to risk factors (including some potentially avoidable lifestyle factors.)

Symptoms

Statistics

Kidney Cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in both men and women. The lifetime risk for developing kidney cancer in men is 1 in 46, and 1 in 80 for women.

There are approximately 13,100 new kidney cancer cases in the UK every year. Over the last decade, kidney cancer incidence rates have increased by more than a third in the UK, and more than 4 in 10 cases are diagnosed at a late stage.

13% of kidney cancer cases in the UK are caused by smoking, while 24% are caused by obesity and being overweight.

The survival rate for kidney cancer is improving and has increased in the last 40 years in the UK, as the survival rate is highest for people diagnosed aged 50 years and younger.