Renal cell carcinoma is the most common form of kidney cancer. Around 1,100 people in Switzerland are diagnosed with it every year. Men are affected twice as often as women. The incidence rate increases with age and is highest around the age of 75.

Nierenkrebs, auch bekannt als Nierenkarzinom, Nierenzellkarzinom oder Adenokarzinom der Niere, ist eine Tumorerkrankung der Niere.

What is kidney cancer?

Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the kidney. It can develop when originally healthy cells in the kidney begin to grow uncontrollably, divide and grow into surrounding tissue. These rapidly multiplying cells can form a tumor.

As a rule, only one of the two kidneys is affected by a tumor. Initially, the tumor usually remains confined to the kidney. However, it can spread to neighboring tissue, the lymph nodes or other organs of the body.

Types of kidney cancer

Kidney tumors are differentiated according to the type of tissue in which they develop. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common form of kidney cancer.

  • Renal cell carcinoma: Around 90 % of all kidney cancer diagnoses are renal cell carcinomas. There are various subtypes of renal cell carcinoma, which differ according to their cell type and tumor characteristics.
  • Transitional cell carcinoma (urothelial carcinoma): Around 5-10% of kidney cancers are transitional cell carcinomas (TCC). They are also known as urothelial carcinomas. These cancers do not develop in the kidney itself, but in the lining of the renal pelvis, whose cells are called “transitional cells”.

There are other rarer types of kidney cancer such as Wilms’ tumors and renal sarcomas.

Symptoms

In most cases, kidney cancer only causes symptoms when the disease is already advanced.

The possible symptoms of kidney cancer include

  • Blood in urine
  • One-sided pain in the lower back
  • A palpable induration on one side of the lower back
  • Tiredness
  • Loss of appetite
  • Unexplained weight loss
  • Persistent fever that is not due to an infection
  • Anemia (low red blood cell count)

Important: These symptoms can also be caused by other diseases and do not necessarily have to be a sign of kidney cancer. However, it is advisable to have them checked by a doctor.

Causes and risk factors

The exact causes of kidney cancer are not yet known. However, there are some factors that can increase the risk of kidney cancer.

These include, among others:

  • Smoking
  • Obesity (morbid overweight)
  • High blood pressure
  • Kidney cancer in the family
  • Certain industrial chemicals, e.g. the solvent trichloroethylene
  • Certain medications, e.g. the painkiller acetaminophen
  • Certain diseases such as Von Hippel-Lindau disease
  • Heredity

Treatment options

Surgery is the main treatment for kidney cancer. Depending on the stage and location of the tumor, either only part of the kidney tissue (known as a partial nephrectomy) or the entire kidney (known as a radical nephrectomy) can be removed.

If surgery is not an option, there are other options.

These include:

  • Ablation: In ablation, smaller tumors can be destroyed in different ways without removing them surgically: with extreme cold, with high-energy radiation or by injecting ethanol (alcohol) directly into the tumor.
  • Active Surveillance (active waiting): This means that small kidney tumors are first carefully observed to see if and how quickly they grow before another treatment is chosen.
  • Radiotherapy: In this form of therapy, high-energy radiation is used to destroy the cancer cells or slow down their growth.
  • Targeted therapies: These specifically developed drugs can block or slow down certain mechanisms and pathways that are responsible for the growth, division and spread of cancer cells.
  • Immunotherapies: These biotechnologically produced drugs can activate or strengthen the body’s own immune system in order to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively.
  • Chemotherapies: Chemotherapy uses drugs that circulate in the bloodstream and can reach and kill rapidly growing cells, including cancer cells, throughout the body.

Which of these therapies is used depends on various factors, primarily the state of health, but also the size, location, characteristics and spread of the tumor. It is also possible for therapies to be used in combination or in succession.

CH-ONC-24-00014, 04/2024

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