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Kidney Cancer: Knowing The Stage Is Important

14th December, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

Kidney cancer stage descriptions are an important tool your doctor can use to characterize the progression of a case of kidney cancer. Once a stage has been assigned, the doctor can begin to evaluate the best means for treatment.

The greatest value of assigning a stage is that it lets the doctor – and the patient – know how serious the disease has become and how far cancer cells have spread. Is there a malignant tumor located only in a kidney, or have cancer cells broken away and reached surrounding glands and lymph nodes? Have they even reached distant organs? You can certainly see why this kind of information is critical to choosing treatment options that are most likely to lead to the best possible outcome.

Doctors consider a range of factors in determining what stage kidney cancer has reached. After all tests and diagnostic tools have been examined, a stage will be assigned. Typically the numbers range from 1 to 4. It’s also possible the doctor will assign a Roman numeral to the stage, but this practice is usually done by medical professionals and not the general public.

Once you know the stage, you can also estimate survival rates by looking at statistics for other kidney cancer patients. There’s no way to accurately predict longevity in every case because there can be so many variables. But it makes sense that someone whose cancer has been detected in an early stage has a better chance of long-term survival than someone who is diagnosed at a later stage.

Kidney cancer cases are assigned a stage based on the following descriptions.

Stage 1 – All cancer cells appear to be concentrated within a kidney and have not spread to adjacent glands, tissues or organs. The cancerous area is no bigger than 2.8 inches across (about 7 centimeters).

Stage 2 – This is a more serious stage than Stage 1 because the tumor is larger. It’s now bigger than 7 centimeters or 2.8 inches. However, all cancer cells still appear to be located in the kidney, and there’s no evidence of metastasis (spreading to other tissues or organs).

Stage 3 – Treatment becomes more difficult at this stage because cancer cells have spread beyond the kidney, possibly to a major vein nearby or to the adrenal gland (located at the top of each kidney).

Stage 4 – At this stage, kidney cancer has become very dangerous and difficult to treat. The cancer has metastacized, meaning it has spread to other parts of the body and is affecting other tissues or possibly a distant organ. It can now also be found in more than one lymph node.

Assigning a stage to kidney cancer is not the only way to measure how serious it is. Medical professionals have also come up with a “grading” system. Grade is determined by placing malignant cells under a microscope and comparing their appearance to normal kidney cells.

When abnormal cells don’t appear to be very different from abnormal cells, a low grade will be designated. The more there’s a difference in appearance between normal and abnormal, the higher the grade. Determining a grade for kidney cancer is a valuable diagnostic tool because it tells your medical professional how quickly the cancer is likely to spread. High grade cancers typically spread faster, which not only makes them more dangerous, but gives doctors an idea of how treatment can be best administered.

The most important thing to remember about kidney cancer stages is their value in helping the doctor determine the best way to treat the disease.

Most cases of kidney cancer occur in adults who are more than 50 years old. Twice as many men get it as women. American Cancer Society statistics reveal that there are around thirty thousand new kidney cancer cases diagnosed every year, and about twelve thousand people succumb to their disease.

Of course, everyone hopes these numbers will decrease as treatment methods improve and research gets closer to a cure. But until then, the kidney cancer staging system will provide doctors with information they need to make important treatment decisions – and save as many lives as possible in the process.

Related topics: what are the stages of kidney cancer and about kidney cancer. Neal Kennedy is a former radio and television reporter. To read more of his articles, click on kidney disorders.