What is cancer?

Cancer harms the body when damaged cells divide uncontrollably to form lumps or masses of tissue called tumors.Tumors can grow and interfere with the digestive, nervous, and circulatory systems, and they can release hormones that alter body function. Tumors that stay in one spot and demonstrate limited growth are generally considered to be benign.

More dangerous, or malignant, tumors form when two things occur:

a-a cancerous cell manages to move throughout the body using the blood or lymph systems, destroying healthy tissue in a process called invasion, b- that cell manages to divide and grow, making new blood  vessels to feed itself in a process called angiogenesis.

When a tumor successfully spreads to other parts of the body and grows, invading and destroying other healthy tissues, it is said to have metastasized. This process itself is called metastasis, and the result is a serious condition that is very difficult to treat.

The most common types of cancer today are:
bladder cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancer, leukemia, lung cancer, melanoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, prostate cancer, thyroid cancer,
and kidney cancer. However lung cancer kill most people.

Kidney tumors do not lend themselves to early diagnosis since these organs lie deep in the body between the lining of the body cavity and the back muscles at the level of the two ribs. Patient will realize when the symptom is so obvious, such as back pain and bloody urine started. By the time the tumor is already large with average sizes of 7.5 cm.

Kidney cancer arises from outer portion of the kidney called parenchyma, which made up of many single unit called nephrons that filter water and toxic product from the blood.

Kidney cancer cells frequently spread through the bloodstream by penetrating the blood vessels within the tumor, then entering the renal vein and / or the interior vena cava, the largest abdominal vein. Once the cell has entered the bloodstream, they can lodge in the lung, liver, brain and bone. In addition, the cells can directly invade the abdominal lymph nodes that drain the kidney and extend into structures surrounding the kidnney such as fat, adrenal bland and liver.

Symptoms and Common signs of Kidney Cancer  
The most common symptoms and the sign of kidney cancers is blood in urine, abdominal pain, anemia, bone pain, unexplained weight loss, low grade fever, general weakness or loss of energy and loss of appetite. However, there are also other symptoms which are not very comment, such as high calcium in blood called hypercalcemia, high blood pressure, too many red blood cell in blood. These unusual symptoms developed are due to the renal tumors produce a substance that indirectly affect other organs, developing conditions called paraneoplastic syndromes.

Stages of Kidney Cancer Development 
There are 4 stages of cancer development. Stage I- the tumor is confined with the renal capsule and the size of growth is less than 2cm or more than 2cm with no lymph node or distant metastases. Stage II-the tumor invades the surrounding fat or adrenal gland. Stage III- the tumor invades the renal vein, the inferior vena cava or regional lymph nodes. Stage IV- The tumor invades the adjacent organs nearby lymph nodes or has distant metastases.

Treatment of Kidney Cancer
Treatment of  kidney cancer is based on the development of the tumor. In Stage I- With the advent of new  technology a kidney tumor is removed by laparoscopic surgery. It is a system comprises a small camera video system with a suction instruments and electrosurgical instruments. The instruments are inserted into the abdomen through small incisions. The whole kidney and lymph nodes are removed in a plastic sac. For Stage II- the standard treatment for Stage II is radical  nephrectomy or a simple nephrectomy. For Stage IV-Nephrectomy  should be considered for severe hemorrhage.

FOLLOW-UP TREATMENT
The treatment of kidney cancer should be continued or be followed-up with regular physical examination, chestx-rays and abdominal CT scan, and bone scan.