What are the symptoms of kidney cancer?
Kidney cancer develops when your DNA is damaged, causing cells to grow faster than normal and form a tumor. Although some kidney tumors are not cancerous, they can grow large enough to damage your kidney, so they’re usually removed.
When symptoms develop, you’ll typically experience:
- Pain in your back or side that doesn’t go away
- Blood in your urine (may appear pink, red, or light brown)
- Loss of appetite
- Unintended weight loss
- Fever that comes and goes
- Fatigue
These symptoms could signal many health problems, so it’s important to schedule an exam at Advanced Urology of South Florida. The doctors are experts in determining whether your symptoms are due to cancer or another underlying condition.
How is kidney cancer diagnosed and treated?
Your doctor diagnoses kidney cancer using blood tests and diagnostic imaging such as ultrasound, MRI, and CT scans. In some cases, they may also perform a biopsy. If you have cancer, your doctor stages the tumor based on its size and whether the cancer has spread.
The primary treatment for kidney cancer is surgery to remove the tumor. Patients who can’t tolerate surgery may undergo cryoablation (freezing) or radiofrequency ablation, which uses heat to destroy the tumor.
Kidney cancers are not very responsive to radiation therapy or chemotherapy, but your doctor may recommend these treatments to help relieve symptoms. Some patients may be good candidates for immunotherapy, which uses drugs to stimulate your immune system to fight cancer.
What are the advantages of robotic laparoscopic surgery to remove kidney cancer?
The team at Advanced Urology of South Florida specialize in removing kidney tumors using robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is minimally invasive, which means it’s performed using long, narrow instruments inserted through a few small incisions.
Minimally invasive surgery causes less trauma to your body compared to open surgery. As a result, you have:
- Significantly less bleeding
- Less postoperative pain
- Lower risk of complications
- Shorter time in the hospital
- Faster recovery
- Minimal scarring
During robotic-assisted surgery, your doctor controls robotic arms that hold the surgical tools. These robotic arms intuitively respond to the doctor’s hand and finger movements, yet they manipulate the tools with enhanced dexterity and range of motion, allowing for more precise surgery.
If you have any concerns about symptoms like a nagging backache or recurring fever, call Advanced Urology of South Florida or book an appointment online.
