Partial nephrectomy and kidney cancer: symptoms, treatments and prevention. What you need to know

Kidney cancer, for which presenter Paola Perego underwent surgery, falls ill every year approximately 13,500 people in our country. It is often discovered by chance, during tests done for other reasons, and if the early diagnosis, i.e. the carcinoma is small and confined to the kidney, Surgery alone may be enough to heal permanently. When the tumor mass is small, with a diameter of a few centimeters, the chances of complete recovery are high and the surgical intervention tends to spare the functionality of the kidneys – he clarifies Giario Conti, national secretary of the Italian Society of Oncological Urology (SIUrO) —. You can therefore opt for one partial nephrectomy, that is, removing only a part of the kidney, the one affected by the cancer, and “saving” the healthy part, which thus continues to carry out its natural tasks. Thanks to new technologies and robotics we are able to intervene with increasingly limited resections and in laparoscopy, also shortening hospital stay times.

Treatment

About 70% of patients are alive 5 years after diagnosis, but even today about a third of cases (30%) are discovered late, in an advanced stage. Renal cancer is a subtle and insidious neoplasm because it often remains clinically silent for a long time, without giving obvious symptoms – he says Giuseppe Procopio, head of genitourinary medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute of Milan —. On average, six out of ten people become aware of the disease during tests done for other health problems and only 55% of carcinomas are detected when confined to the kidney alone and therefore easier to care for. The first-line treatment for localized and locally advanced disease surgery, conservative when possible (i.e. it only removes the tumor and spares the healthy organ). In case of reoccurrence relapsesto prevent relapses or for patients with metastases we have various effective drugs, both molecularly targeted and immunotherapy, while chemo and radiotherapy against this neoplasm have proven to be of little use.

Symptoms

There are essentially three symptoms that should not be overlooked: hematuria, or the presence of blood in the urinewhich is often the first sign of illness and can appear suddenly, disappear spontaneously and then recur again; dull pain in the side or colic-like spasmscaused by the presence of blood clots along the urinary tract (renal pelvis and ureter); presence of a palpable mass in the abdominal cavity at the flank level. Colic, like hematuria, are also common symptoms of kidney stones: without being too alarmed, it is important to talk to a doctor, who will prescribe any necessary further investigations, remember Conte. In Italy and in many Western countries, cases of kidney cancer (the same one diagnosed by the writer Michela Murgia), which is statistically more frequent in males, are increasing: why? The reason, according to experts, is to be found in the incorrect lifestyles increasingly widespread that favor the onset of this and other types of cancer: overweight, obesity, hypertension, poor diet, sedentary lifestyle. And especially, smoke.

Who risks more

It is believed that overweight is the basis of approximately 25% of newly diagnosed cases in Europe, with particular reference to women. Tobacco it would instead be responsible for around 40% of cases, especially in men: the number of cigarettes smoked every day and the number of years of exposure are directly proportional to the increase in the risk of this disease. Then there are people who must be considered special surveillance: First-degree relatives of kidney cancer patients may be four times more likely to be affected by the same tumor than the general population — concludes Sergio Bracarda, president of the Italian Society of Urological Oncology (SIUrO) —. Forced workers are also particularly exposed to risk prolonged exposure to petroleum derivatives, torotrast or zinc. Finally, it should not be underestimated arterial hypertensionone of the most widespread chronic pathologies and which affects beyond 15 million Italians: increases the risk of kidney cancer by 60%. About 4% of cases may have a hereditary basis due to von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, transmitted by the VHL gene. Even those who suffer from polycystic kidney diseasesubjected to dialysis for a long time, has a greater risk of developing cancer.

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